Help please--Circulation FOWLR

[Russell]

I have purchased my first sw aquarium. My set up is as follows. 75
Gallon All Glass Aquarium/ stand, drilled with overflow box. wet/dry
filter with in-sump EuroReef Es5-2 Protein Skimmer. Rio600 for pumping
water from sump back to the tank. 1 max -jet 600 powerhead (160 gph)
for circulation. 88 lbs of Fiji live rock, heater, etc. My problem is
this. The shop says the one Powerhead is enough for circulation but I
just finished reading The New Marine Aquarium and it indicates that
you need 5-10x tank volume /hr circulation through the powerheads. Who
is Right? should I get another Powerhead ?

Thank you

Russell

[Marco Qualizza]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 10:05:25 -0700, Russell wrote:

> I have purchased my first sw aquarium. My set up is as follows. 75 Gallon
> All Glass Aquarium/ stand, drilled with overflow box. wet/dry filter with
> in-sump EuroReef Es5-2 Protein Skimmer. Rio600 for pumping water from sump
> back to the tank. 1 max -jet 600 powerhead (160 gph) for circulation. 88
> lbs of Fiji live rock, heater, etc. My problem is this. The shop says the
> one Powerhead is enough for circulation but I just finished reading The
> New Marine Aquarium and it indicates that you need 5-10x tank volume /hr
> circulation through the powerheads. Who is Right? should I get another
> Powerhead ?
>
> Thank you

The answers to your questions (even those you haven't asked, such as "Is a
trickle filter ok?") completely depends on what you intend to stock. If
you intend to eventually build a reef tank, then no, 160 gph isn't nearly
enough for a 75 gallon tank (for just circulation you do want approx 10x
-- for skimming you want approx 6x). I mentioned the trickle (wet/dry)
filter because they are nitrate factories, and are a Bad Thing for reef
tanks (inverts are super-sensitive to nitrates).

Luckily, since you've just bought your tank, all your out is some money.
And, if the LFS is decent, you can return the stuff you don't want.

So, what kind of tank do you want? Fish Only (FO), Fish Only with Live
Rock (FOWLR) or reef? (No, this isn't the only thing you'll have to
decide, esp. if you decide reef -- 'cause then you have to decide exactly
what it is you'd like to stock....)

[Richard Reynolds]

> I have purchased my first sw aquarium. My set up is as follows. 75
> Gallon All Glass Aquarium/ stand, drilled with overflow box. wet/dry
> filter with in-sump EuroReef Es5-2 Protein Skimmer. Rio600 for pumping
> water from sump back to the tank. 1 max -jet 600 powerhead (160 gph)
> for circulation. 88 lbs of Fiji live rock, heater, etc. My problem is
> this. The shop says the one Powerhead is enough for circulation but I
> just finished reading The New Marine Aquarium and it indicates that
> you need 5-10x tank volume /hr circulation through the powerheads. Who
> is Right? should I get another Powerhead ?

the number of powerheads is apropreate, however you need something more powerful than a
rio600 a rio600 is good for about 200gph at 0 head (height of water from source to
destination a measure of resistance) put some difference in the two and it drops
significantly. IF you are set on rio's get the hyperflows, dont tinker with the others you
probibly wont be happy. a FOWLR does not need 10X turnover but you should get to 5X in a
pinch you can do just fine at 3X but then 75X3 = 225gph and your 600 isnt gona cut that.


--
Richard Reynolds