i have a 26 gallon biocube

[Guest justin ragland]

I was wondering if it would be better for me to take water out of my established tank and put in this when when i set it up.I also wanted to know if a 100 to 270 gph would be to much flow.Please help me

[jason the filter freak]

I was wondering if it would be better for me to take water out of my established tank and put in this when when i set it up.I also wanted to know if a 100 to 270 gph would be to much flow.Please help me

 

WELCOME TO WAMAS.

 

I think you might get a number of slightly conflicting answers here. I would say certianly add water and some sand maybe even rock from your established system to get the new tank started as long as your water quality is good.

 

Some one might eat me here, but I defintly think you might be under flow there... davlin might be able to correct me on this on but I say this. In my (roughly double the size of your tank I have 4 x Maxijet 1200's thats 295 GPH, in addation to two Fluval 405's which are 225 GPH roughly and the tank does great with no sand storms and the fish aren't pinned to the wall. I have no algea issues at all to speak of, and with a crappy little hang on back prizim my water stays where I need it (in terms of quality) for softies and fish

 

I also have a 5.5 gal under construction powered by one Penguin 1400 that is 300 GPH mind you it has yet to be tested with live fish and corals in it, but it did great, not over powering with fresh water trials

 

Lastly I have a 2.5 Pico with a Fluval 2 intank filter that pushes 105 GPH connected to a hydor rotating deflector, I'm also adding tonight to fix a potential dead spot a tiny tiny 20 GPH power head (thats a guess the thing is no joking about the size of 1 and a half pieces of bubble yum gum stacked up)

 

The Pico currently has 3 zoa polyps, 2 feather dusters (when open about the size of a quarter), 2 kenya tree coral (one is about 2" inches the other 1.5", 5 yellow star polyp polyps, 5 green mushrooms about the size of a nickel a piece, about 5 heads pulsing xenia, and a 2x2' feild of plain purple star polyps... this tank has been up and running 9 days now, all corals are bright and extending and look great

 

So over all I have to say your flow is not overpowering if not maybe too little, keep in mind things like diffusers on your power heads, amout of rock work, head (if you're running a sump or cannister filter), will all cut down on flow.

 

GOOD LUCK, WELCOME TO WAMAS, LETS GET SOME PICS UP

 

If you don't know how to post pics yet this will explain

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15185

 

P.S. See guys I have a helpful and constructive response sometimes...

[Guest justin ragland]

thank you very much.

[davelin315]

Hey Justin, I agree with Jason that you will probably want more flow. That said, I think that in a 26 gallon tank (depending on how much of it is actually water volume in the display versus simply being the dimensions of the tank itself) you can add quite a bit of flow that can be dispersed in a number of ways to prevent it from creating sand storms and stripping the flesh off of your corals. You could add a pvc diffuser grid on the bottom that would keep things from settling in the sand by pointing it up (basically an inverted spray bar), you could use powerheads to create flow inside the tank, you could have multiple outlets for the returns, you could have the return be oscillating, you could add an eductor...

 

Bottom line in a tank is not always how much flow you have, but how you divide it up and utilize it. Remember, one of the main reasons we want flow in our tanks is to keep detritus from settling in the tank, allowing your filtration to remove it from the water column.

 

Hey Justin, I agree with Jason that you will probably want more flow. That said, I think that in a 26 gallon tank (depending on how much of it is actually water volume in the display versus simply being the dimensions of the tank itself) you can add quite a bit of flow that can be dispersed in a number of ways to prevent it from creating sand storms and stripping the flesh off of your corals. You could add a pvc diffuser grid on the bottom that would keep things from settling in the sand by pointing it up (basically an inverted spray bar), you could use powerheads to create flow inside the tank, you could have multiple outlets for the returns, you could have the return be oscillating, you could add an eductor...

 

Bottom line in a tank is not always how much flow you have, but how you divide it up and utilize it. Remember, one of the main reasons we want flow in our tanks is to keep detritus from settling in the tank, allowing your filtration to remove it from the water column.