Will adding powerheads really help my Acropora growth

I have a 4 year old reef tank of 150 gallons. I have had SPS corals
for approximately 1 1/2 years which have grown but sometimes not
maintained the color I desired. The SPS corals are kept in the top 12"
of the tank under a 250Watt HQI pendant. For about the past year I
have had a deep blue Acropora tortusa. It has indeed grown, and
maintained excellent deep blue coloration, probably increasing from a
single 1/2" frag to a multiple branched specimen about 3" tall. My
question is regarding the flow in the tank. Most sources recommend
high flow for SPS corals, but I have relatively low flow around my SPS
corals. Due to the shape and arrangement of my tank, it is difficult
to position a powerhead to give flow to the tank where the SPS are.
Should I simply not mess with what appears to be working, or perhaps my
corals would really do much better with some powerheads constantly
circulating water around them?

Hi,
You don't say how much flow you have now, ideally you should have
about twenty times the volume of water in your tank/system per hour. I
think though that your main problem is your lighting, you say your tank
set up is four years old, is the the lighting that old ? if it is it
has long passed it's replacement date, is it the only light ? if it is
you have less than 2 Watts per gall. woefully inadequate you should
have at least 4 or 5 Watts per gall., you don't say what the kelvin
rating is ? for a 150 gall. tank with hard corals you should have
600/750 Watts some of which needs to be actinic blue even if you are
using 20,000 K .
regards,
unclenorm.

wrote:
I have a 4 year old reef tank of 150 gallons. I have had SPS corals
for approximately 1 1/2 years which have grown but sometimes not
maintained the color I desired. The SPS corals are kept in the top
12"
of the tank under a 250Watt HQI pendant. For about the past year I
have had a deep blue Acropora tortusa. It has indeed grown, and
maintained excellent deep blue coloration, probably increasing from a
single 1/2" frag to a multiple branched specimen about 3" tall. My
question is regarding the flow in the tank. Most sources recommend
high flow for SPS corals, but I have relatively low flow around my
SPS
corals. Due to the shape and arrangement of my tank, it is difficult
to position a powerhead to give flow to the tank where the SPS are.
Should I simply not mess with what appears to be working, or perhaps
my
corals would really do much better with some powerheads constantly
circulating water around them?

If you have SPS that are growing and holding their color than I wouldnt
mess with your current set-up. I have a 92 gal and for 2 years had the
return as the only circulation so I was moving around 700gph. My SPS
were growing but I wasnt seeing the polyp extention like other people
have had so I added a couple of pumps for an additional 1300 gph or so
of water movement.
Im not saying that this is the cause but it has been a month and I have
been battling red slime and hair algae ever since I made the change and
the SPS that were extending their polyps are not extending anymore. The
only positive affect I have seen in the last month is that more scum
must be getting to my skimmer because it is producing a lot more crud.
Right now Im still in the wait and see mode before I make any changes.
I'm hoping it is just a matter of time for things to get back in sync.

Ken






wrote:
I have a 4 year old reef tank of 150 gallons. I have had SPS corals
for approximately 1 1/2 years which have grown but sometimes not
maintained the color I desired. The SPS corals are kept in the top
12"
of the tank under a 250Watt HQI pendant. For about the past year I
have had a deep blue Acropora tortusa. It has indeed grown, and
maintained excellent deep blue coloration, probably increasing from a
single 1/2" frag to a multiple branched specimen about 3" tall. My
question is regarding the flow in the tank. Most sources recommend
high flow for SPS corals, but I have relatively low flow around my
SPS
corals. Due to the shape and arrangement of my tank, it is difficult
to position a powerhead to give flow to the tank where the SPS are.
Should I simply not mess with what appears to be working, or perhaps
my
corals would really do much better with some powerheads constantly
circulating water around them?