water flow and placement

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dalbright82

New member
I just got a powerhead (koralia 425, 425gph) for my nano (14g). I've been trying to get the placement down to make everything happy. My frogspawn seems to be stressed and shrunk up with the flow now, even though it's not getting a ton... do they just take a little time to adapt, or should i move the powerhead to a new spot or relocate the frogspawn? My rbta has more bubbles now, but shrunk up into a ball at night. Not sure if these are signs of too much flow or not. I just had the return pump going in before and had it pointing towards the anemone since he needed the most flow out of what was in my tank at the time. Will toy around more tonight based on what i hear. My clowns love the flow...too much actually, the one never leaves it!
 
Could be a sign of too much flow, but probably just the coral adapting to the higher (but acceptable) flow by closing up for a bit of time.

Once they get comfortable with the flow they will come back out. If they don't, the flow is probably too much.

I would give it some time.
 
I assure you that a Koralia Nano 425 is NOT too much flow for that tank. Due to the curved nature of the front glass it is very easy to create a gyre using only the one pump. Place the pump next to the overflow (opposite the return) and point it across the tank pointing at the curved front glass.

Your corals and fish will be just fine. I would also upgrade the return pump to a MJ1200 and add a rotating hydor deflector to the return for even more random flow. DO NOT use this deflector without upgrading the pump though as the stock pump will suffer greatly from the flow restriction of the deflector.
 
I would suggest that you don't hit anything with the flow directly. Place the pump on one of the back cornders pointed at the front glass. The flow will the hit the front and "wrap" around the tank - dispersing the flow.
 
I have a 425 in our 14g, mount the pump directly below the overflow grates, and aim upwards slightly pointing towards the center of the tank. Make sure to get just a little ripple on the surface, this will bounce the flow back off the front and circulate the flow in the tank. Use your return line to create more surface turbulance to break up any proteins and skim so they will wash thru your filter system easier.

It should also be about the time you will tell if your light is adequate for that rbta, it should still have that vibrant rosy red color, if it is looking like its starting to pale out towards more pink than red, it's best to find a more suitable tank while it's still fairly healthy, will be much more difficult to bring it back to health once it goes pale pink nearly clear/white.
 
The return pump is a maxijet 900.That coupled with the koralia should be ok for that tank.It was my tank,so i should know :)
 
The motto holds true, you can never have too much flow!! lol, anyway, that is almost perfect for that size for sure. I could maybe use more in mine, but I'm tapped out on my expenses for the new tank for now, lol. Maxijet 1200 in powerhead mode, and koralia 750, with a Rio 3100 (I think....) as my sump return.
 
i tried the rotating deflector thingy and i didnt like it. tried it witht he mj900 felt like there was just less flow. :-( so i removed it.
 
mr_z said:
i tried the rotating deflector thingy and i didnt like it. tried it witht he mj900 felt like there was just less flow. :-( so i removed it.
Click to expand...

Like I said, needs a MJ1200 to be effective in a tank that size. It significantly increases back pressure on the pump so you need the larger pump to overcome that. Your corals will benefit from the increased random flow though.
 
Great, thanks everyone! Sounds like i'm in a decent spot right now. I have it under the overflow grates pointing towards the left wall at a slight angle down (on the opposite side of the return pump). Do you think it would be better pointing up though? Didn't think of doing that. Fishbeard, in regards to the anemone, the color is still the same as when i got it, so it appears the diy lights are holding their own, but i'm still spot feeding every few days a bit of shrimp until i get the tank more stable with all of the additions and changes. It hasn't moved again so i'm hoping that's a good sign. As soon as i can figure out how to take good pics of the tank with my camera i'll post some. Appreciate all the help from everyone!
 
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