water flow in 10gal cube

[james1990]

I cant seem to figure this out. PLEASE give me some input.
I started out running the Koralia nano 240gph pump on my 10gal cube.
It seemed way to strong for my corals which are mostly softies. So I went out and have been running the smaller 1180gph spin stream hydor pump which calmed things down alot.

how much water flow should I be running in my softie cube? should I just keep the 240 running? or the spin stream?

 

[JonnyJ]

Hey,

Whenever you change flow in a tank with corals things will react. You will have to monitor whether its good or bad. If things look poorly it doesn't mean its to much flow, just may take some time getting use to the change. You generally do not want anything being pulverized with flow.

Since your new and i imagine your tank is new? i would suggest placing the power head [koralia nano] midway in a tank and face it up towards the waterline on an angle. Allow things to get use to it and slowly move it closer and closer towards being horizontal without causing to much stress on corals.

Posting a photo will really help us. A koralia Nano should not be too much flow for your 10 gallon setup.

 

[tosiek]

Rule of thumb is 10x water volume. For actual force hitting a coral, visually its 3-4 inches per second for SPS if you can track a particle moving through your water. Softies and LPS range between 1-2.5 in/s. Small tanks suck with water flow because most PH's are overpowered for the tank size. You might want to bouce the flow off the front or back pane of the tank to create some circular flow in the tank. Forgot the exact terminology.

The reason the spin stream feels less is because your not directing the flow in 1 specific area but spreading the much larger GPH through the tank. This is ideally what you want to be using in your tank anyways, less laminar flow to something more varied through the tank.

Hydor does make a pico powerhead rated at 180gph. It should be perfect for your tank.

 

[Reef Reaper]

i have three small nano's (24,12, & 9) and i just have the stock pumps. I did not add any extra pumps and everything is doing well.