Trying To Figure Out...

[RAYRAY]

I'm not sure if this should be happening. I have to constantly use a powerhead to blow off my rocks of :pooh:. I'm not sure if this is right. Should I just leave it or continue to do what i do. I just can't see doing this every couple of days. Maybe I need to add some more clean up crews. Maybe like 10 more nassarius snails. I have a goby that keeps the sand spot clean. I have 5 astrea snails that do a great job on the glass, and have 5 nassarius snails that i never see except right before the lights go out. I know this is not good for the corals either. Any opinions ??????

 

[yote]

Try getting more flow.With enough water flow,you'll keep most of it in the water where your skimmer can pick it up.

 

[McCrary]

Yote always seems to hit the nail on the head. More flow will suspend most of it so the filter sock and skimmer can get at it. You might also want to get some small reef safe hermits as they will get in the nooks and crannies and eat the detritus. Actually blowing off the rocks shouldn't be necessary, unless you have a BB SPS tank and have to make sure that nitrates stay at 0.

 

[Rcpilot]

I have dust all over my rocks. I use a turkey baster to blow out holes and in the nooks and crannies before a water change. F**K it. Ya can't stop it, so I just live with it. It's just sediment and dust. Plenty of that in the ocean. :mrgreen:

 

[Doc]

most tanks do not have anywhere near enough current. remember, the ocean has some wicked surf and corals and fish seem to do just fine. Add another powerhead to get that crap swirling around your tank so your skimmer and filters can get them

-Doc

 

[fatman]

A nice general method of deciding howmuch watrer to keep in motion is keep in motion (for a general reef tank) twentytimes yor tanks water volume per hour. That means after subtracting for coral and sand about 3o gallons x 20, or 600 gallons per hour. A Maxi-Jet is about 100 gph, and a Korali #1 probably 200 gph, meaning your sump pump has to be circulating 300 gph to have the recommended rate. That isn't neccesarily enough either, if you feed heavily or have a heavy load of fish or fish/coral more is probably better. If you have the fan dispersal on the Maxi-Jet taking it off would help and do not use the air injection on the Maxi-Jet, block off the hose nipple at the pump.

 

[RAYRAY]

Fatman, I Do Block The Maxi Off, That Was Rated At 104 So Yeah 100 And The Koralia 1 Was Rated A 400.. So I Figured I Had About 500 Gph.
Are You Saying That The Koralia Is Not Rated At What Is Says ???? Cause Then I Would Definately Need Another Powerhead. Not To Mention The Only Filtration I Have Is My Live Rock And Protein Skimmer.i Do Not Have A Sump. I Do Have A Small Hob Filter That I Will Be Using To Run My Carbon Or Chemi-pure At Night When No One Sees The Tank. But Thats It. I Just Am Trying To Figure What I Will Do In The Future When I Get The 72 Bow Front. I Will Have A Sump For That.

 

[fatman]

I "miss spoke," OK i screwed up the Korali is rated at 400 gph not 200 gph. Korali's are high volume mover and not extremely high velocity pumps. Generally that is OK becouse few corals like high velocity flows so a Korali can often be pointed right at corals. It does have limits to its capability to stir up particulates once they settle any distance form the pump. This means more Korali's at closer spacing or a larger Korali. It would probably make a huge difference if you replaced the Maxi-Jet with another Korali #1 or #2 and point one of them right at the area where you get the most settlement. Avoid arranging all your live rock right in the center of the tank as this creates a huge drop in water movement in the center of the tank with increased movement in a circle around perimeter of tank. People with square tanks also tend to have a lot higher percentage of their particulate settlement in the center of their tanks with central arrangement of rock. You have not said what type of sand you are uing I assume you do not have fine sand with one of your pumps kicking up sand particles.

 

[RAYRAY]

no... dont get me wrong Fatman, I thought you knew something about the koralia's that I didn't. PLease know that I greatly appreciate your help. My rock formation is towards the rear of the tank but with water flowing around the whole structure. I made sure that the rocks did not stack up on the glass and that there was plenty of breathing room you could say throughout the "reef" itself. the base sand that i used was fine reef sand. 25 lbs of it . On top of that I put argonite Live sand. A 10 lb bag of that. so none of the power heads are kicking up settlemen no. BUT ..... My tomato clown does this kinda BURNOUT thing alot. so it could be just sand settlement. Maybe I will replace the maxi and go with another koralia. but it will be a #1 becuase they are kinda big. Thanks again for all your help !!!!

 

[fatman]

The number one shold be definate improvement. I usually do not remember to think of fish kicking up particles as I keep fish seldomly. The problem withcircular flow patterns is that there is a quick fall out of large particles around the perimeter of the flow with fine particles stying is suspension towards the cenetr of theflow (center of tank until they settle towrds the center of the tank. The rectangular tanks seem to spread out the settled particles over a perportionally larger area of the tank. The Korali'as are nice pumps for their price, they have like a lot of other power head makers exchnged one problem for another however, but as I am an advocate of high volume circulation that is OK it just means more circulation at lower velocities whichin genearl is best. It does tend to throw out the door the old method of saying the recommended is 10 to 20 X, as it will now quickly become the recommended is 20 to 30 X, so as to have good water flow jet still have enough velocity to keep the particulates in suspension until they can be removed.

 

[RAYRAY]

fishman... you should watch my tomato at night... i think he is sorta like fluffing his pillow. He does like burnouts in the sand.
But anyhow, thanks for the help. I tried to not make a "whirlpool" effect in my tank being that it is a hex tank. So i have the koralia 1 blowing across the "reef" and the maxi at the top breaking the surface. I was wondering if I put a filter sock on the output of my skimmer to cut down on microbubbles and place it right above the surface of the water would that break the surface enough and that way I could point the maxi down to counter flow the koralia ??? just a thought .

 

[fatman]

Unless you have a heavy bio load (lots of fish or coral), or no sump or skimmer, one seldom needs to have a power head pointed at the surface. Your skimmer is providing more carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange than a rippling water surface will provide, an a skimmer removes the organic oils from the water surface so you need not use a power head to break them up for gas exchange purposes.

 

[RAYRAY]

ok.. so I just learned something new. I do not have a sump. I do however have a skimmer. my total bio-load as of right now is 4 fish and 10 snails. But that is good to know casue I can now use the flow from the maxi to point down at the rocks instead of breaking the surface. That is what you are saying to me right ???
The only question is that my skimmer is a HOB ccs 65. it sits about 3 inches below the surface. So how will it take oils from the surface ?????

 

[fatman]

Sure point a power head at the rocks. Your skimmer will need to process much more water to remove the dissolved organics with out a skimmer box feeding it, it will however still remove a lot of *rap from your water, just slower. I have heard there are manufacturers now producing HOB skimmers with skimmer boxes to feed the pumps. I hear, they are a lot like overflow pipes with a pump at the bottom. As long as the box is little over sized, so as to keep the pump from sucking air, they should work good. Should be easy to fabricate something for your own skimmer. If you are not a do it your self type, just contact the owner of http://glass-holes.com and he would gladly fabricate something up for you out of acrylic.