Powerheads GPH per gallon.

phastroh

Do Not Listen To Me!!!
I know there are some that say turning your tank 40x an hour is needed and some say 20x.

Is there any real answer at least when it comes to a minimum.

I believe even if you have 50x but it is all pointing at a rock it is not going to matter.

I currently have 4600GPH total in my tank that is 220Gal. Now my returns blow pretty hard as well. All 4 inlets are blasting. Corals are waving and since I reposition my Powerheads and inlets my sand is looking better and my glass corners are even sustaining what crap they have on them and not adding more.

I know most people feel the more the better but there are spots in the tank where the corals don't need a vortex of water and actually look worse when they get it.

I personally feel that the location and positioning of the powerheads is equally if not more important in some cases over the total GPH. I gleemed this just from my own experience with my old 80Gal and now with the recent repositioning I mentioned above.

I always had an extra Powerhead, although a weak on positioned to blow behind my rockwork but now with 2 different piles that has become a challenge.

One of my Aqueon 1250 Powerheads blows across my Acros with a slight down angle toward the back of one stack and I have my Aqueon 550 blowing across the top of the other stack and into the darkness on the other side.(It has no corals to agitate to slow it down) while the other 2 Aqueon 1250's are set with one 1/3 of the way up and the other criss crossing it somewhat while stirring the surface.

All the while my returns are blowing water across the fronts of the rock work and into the 2 front corners.

I made a post about these location in another thread but wanted to get some GPH info from others.

Yes I would slap an MP40 in the middle but I am probably going to snag a Digital Aquatics L3 Reef Keeper before that is even on the horizon.
 
I don't know of any precise formula on flow but I think you should make as strong as you can without damaging corals or causing a sand storm. But getting the flow just right is not trivial.
 
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