- Today, in the Five Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide,
we show you how to properly set up flow in a new reef tank.
(upbeat music)
Hey, I'm Ryan, your host of BRStv
and the Five Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide.
This is a clear, simplified, and direct path
to setting up a first successful reef tank.
Today, we're adding flow to these two tanks.
Water flow is one of the most critical
components of a reef tank.
The pros are constantly perfecting,
but getting an adequate flow in a first reef tank
takes about five minutes to get right,
and I can guarantee by the end of this video,
you'll have the information required
to get this right and flow will not be something
holding you back from success.
Good water flow has a handful of important roles in a tank.
Keeps food and waste suspended for filtration to remove,
carries important nutrients and elements to the corals.
Movement transfers fluids within the corals' tissue,
turns over the surface of the water
keeping the tank rich with oxygen,
and strong currents are a healthy,
active environment for fish.
Adding flow is as simple as throwing
a few pumps called power heads in the tank.
Most have a magnetic coupler.
Snap them on and plug them in and you're done.
Typically, one on each side of the tank
where they intersect and provide turbulent flow patterns.
However, there's so many flow rates
and types of power heads you can get lost in it.
There's no need to get lost in all that discussion.
Perfection's a journey, but at the start
of that journey is just getting
a working model up and running.
Just to get a lay of the land, there are AC pumps,
which are just on all the time,
wave makers that can turn those AC pumps on and off
to create varied flow patterns, and DC pumps
that slowly ramp up and down to create varied flow,
and specialty pumps like the Vortechs,
which keeps the cords out of the tank,
or gyres which are designed for strong currents.
All, of course, available
at different flow rates, and prices.
Getting straight to it, with these two tanks
and all the corals we talked about
adding in episode eight,
all we need to be successful is two AC power heads,
one on each side of the tank.
On a first tank, cost is almost always a factor.
Keeping cost down is a balance of cheap versus reliable.
One of the things you'll learn throughout the series
is almost everything with a plug is a component
of life support for the reef tank
and, because of that, reliability is almost always
more important than nonessential features.
Considering all that, there are some distinct reasons
why I recommend the third generation Hydor Koralias
for either of these tanks, specifically,
two of the smaller 1,350 gallon per hour models.
First, Hydor's essentially the founder
of affordable power heads and flow in reef tanks
and, by orders of magnitude, the most popular brand
of affordable AC power heads.
They've proven themselves reliable.
The unique mounting design allows you to aim them
in almost any direction and the only option we stock,
which has different mounting caps,
which allow you to change the flow pattern
from narrow, high velocity, to a wider low velocity pattern,
and adjustable to different tank sizes and needs.
In the case of the 40 breeder, we're gonna put
one on each end aimed at each other,
positioned about a third of the way from the front
to the back, so the flow goes in front of the rock
or aquascape and then use the narrow flow pattern caps,
which will cause more turbulence and keep the fish out.
However, in the E170, because it's not as wide of a tank,
I would use the Hydor caps, which create
the wider flow pattern.
That's the starting point and you can play
with the different caps and aiming them
in different directions to fit your needs.
You can also explore wave makers
that you turn them on and off for varied flow.
With the types of corals that we're going to maintain,
wave makers are not a requirement for success,
but there's always benefits to varied flow
if you wanna add a wave maker down the road.
With the E170, were gonna a slightly different route.
This is one of those rare instances
where one of the more expensive options
with the EcoTech Vortech is actually
the number one selling of all the power heads
that we offer, regardless of price,
again, for some distinct reasons.
It's the only option that keeps the cords out of the tank
by magnetically coupling the motor on the outside.
No way around it, cords in the tank are undesirable.
Maintenance and cleaning them is a 30 second
swap with the wet sides.
They connect wirelessly with each other
to create varied flow patterns out of the box
and have a battery backup option
to keep the life support running
in the event of a power outage.
The MP10s are not a traditional starter power head
and has way more features than required
for either of these tanks to be successful.
But, because Vortechs are the number one
most popular power head, it doesn't make sense
to leave them out of the conversation.
The MP10s obviously match the clean look of the E170,
so that's what we're gonna go with here.
That said, don't spend too much time debating
either of these because both the Koralia and the Vortechs
will produce the desired result of a successful reef tank.
If you find yourself debating it too heavily,
I'd just go with the Koralia,
save some cash for soemthing else.
Installing the MP10s and the E170 is similar,
likely upfront, about a third of the way,
opposing each other, wet sides on the inside,
motor, magnetically coupled on the outside,
mount the controller box inside the cabinet,
couple button presses to wirelessly sync them together,
and then select one of the flow patterns,
I'd say Reef Crest being the most popular,
then use the control knob to adjust
the strength of the flow.
The right flow rate will be obvious
once you get corals into the tank,
particularly, the types of corals that we're putting in.
Just as an additional note, the E170 has
what's called a return pump that recirculates water
from the front of the tank through the filtration
compartment in the back.
This is also a good time to install that.
Plug it into the red sea power center and turn it on.
These tanks now have flow and the next step
is answering how do we heat them?
The oceans reefs are much warmer than most of our homes,
so we need to fix that and this is the number one
source of equipment related failures
that you can avoid with just a couple simple tips.
The entire Five Minute Reef Guide is always available here,
but if you wanna skip learning the lessons
the hard way with heaters, check out episode 14 right here.