I have a 20 gallon reef tank setup and I was wondering how much flow i should have. At the moment i have a Koralia 3 in the tank (850 gph). Should I trade this in for a smaller one (or 2), and if so how many gph should i shoot for. I am only asking because I received a leather toadstool today and placed it in my tank and it was laying on its side (Which I thought to be normal for the first day). However, I turned off my pumps (Koralia 3) and in about 5 min it was sitting up straight, but once i turned it back on it was laying on its side. The pump is not blowing directly on the coral and I was wondering if I should reduce the flow or jsut wait a few days to see if it will stand up straight. Any advice/help would be great
Do I have to much flow in 20 gallon??
- Thread starter tsdpurdue
- Start date
I am all for maximum flow but yes a K3 is too much for a 20 gallon. Each tank is different so giving you an exact number is difficult. If you have a ton of rock that will redirect flow, you probably can get by with more versus an open tank that may not require pumps quite as powerful. A rough number to go by would be 30-40 x turnover in the display for a reef with mainly softies and LPS. SPS could go to 60x plus.
If you have rocks built up in front of the powerhead you can play around with the K3 to make it work but direct blasts from a K3 is going to be too much for most any coral. It is typically better to have 2+ powerheads to create a more random flow (unless you have a wavemaker). Laminar flow (one way), typically doesn't work too well for very long. 2 x K1s or maybe a K1 + K2. The Koralia Evos are another option. 2 of the 550's might work pretty well and they are more compact than the K1-3 and larger Evos (750, 1050).
If you have rocks built up in front of the powerhead you can play around with the K3 to make it work but direct blasts from a K3 is going to be too much for most any coral. It is typically better to have 2+ powerheads to create a more random flow (unless you have a wavemaker). Laminar flow (one way), typically doesn't work too well for very long. 2 x K1s or maybe a K1 + K2. The Koralia Evos are another option. 2 of the 550's might work pretty well and they are more compact than the K1-3 and larger Evos (750, 1050).
My general rule of thumb on flow in any tank:
If the fish are not spinning around like they are being flushed down a toilet bowl....you dont have too much flow.
so, like greech also said...sounds like you have too much flow or you need to redirect the flow.
If the fish are not spinning around like they are being flushed down a toilet bowl....you dont have too much flow.
so, like greech also said...sounds like you have too much flow or you need to redirect the flow.
