# How much flow is to much flow



## 1200assassin (Jan 14, 2011)

Hi guys,

Me again. I am upgrading the pumps in my aquarium and am wondering how much is to much. I read the rule of thumb 10-15 times gph as the amount of water in the tank. But then saw some tanks running close to 40 times the amount of water in the tank. Any advice?

My plan it to run the following. Keep in mind that i will be using a wavemaker so only one of each pair will be on at a time.

2 x Pico Evolution Mini Pump - 1200 for 300gph of low flow
2 x Maxi-Jet Pro Multi-Use Water Pump - 600 for 750gph of turbulant flow

So basically 1050gph for a 47g tank. To much flow?


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## ihavecrabs (Jul 17, 2012)

It really depends on what you have living in the tank. Fish, sps, lps corals will have no trouble with that flow. Softies, depends on where they are relative to the powerheads. Overall, i wouldn't worry about that amount of flow. I grow mostly sps and my flow is closer to 50 times. Also, don't forget to add in the living rock in your tank to deduct from the total volume of water. The only way you can tell for sure is to observe the behaviour of the coral.


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## Ctp416 (Nov 23, 2011)

I`m running 2 Hydor Koralia`s (1050 & 750) 1800GPH in a 40 Gallon and happy with the flow but think the 750 doesn`t have enough flow and the 1050 has a little to much!


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

For me even 1050 was to much since the tank is full of corals and huge anemone.
i would not also recommend powerful ones if you have a very fine sand

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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

You need enough flow to keep debris suspended, and moving to the overflow, or skimmer intake. There are some exceptions, but by the time your tank gets to that point, you will be expert enough to know them 

IMO, only a dominated sps system needs to focus on huge amounts of flow. Some of the nicer flow designs I have seen were simple tunze wave boxes. No blasting pumps, just the gentle back and forth of the waves. Corals loved it, and sand wa pristine white. Since the top layer is always moving back and forth gently.

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## 1200assassin (Jan 14, 2011)

Thanks guys as always


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

I've found that more, smaller powerheads work better than having only a few large powerheads. You can put in 4-6 smaller powerheads and position them to get the proper flow you want rather than having 2-3 huge ones that blow only a few feet.


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## CrankbaitJon (Mar 26, 2012)

Totally agree with the above post. Also, I recently switched powerheads and I can tell you that certain LPS cannot take too much flow.


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## Chromey (Sep 25, 2010)

I HATE power heads in my Tank, But still use Vortechs.
I run a Closed-loop aswell.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

altcharacter said:


> I've found that more, smaller powerheads work better than having only a few large powerheads. You can put in 4-6 smaller powerheads and position them to get the proper flow you want rather than having 2-3 huge ones that blow only a few feet.


this time I agree with you 

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## Chromey (Sep 25, 2010)

Then You get to have Wires Everywhere... FUN FUN.


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Chromey said:


> Then You get to have Wires Everywhere... FUN FUN.


Some planning reduces the eye sore. No different than the vortech outter piece sitting on the end of the tank.

I always tease house guests when they point stuff like that out. I tell them they are lookng at the wrong spots! I spent that much money, the least they can do is stop playong with the floating magnet, and look into the tank!

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