CageUK
Fishaholic
Ok, I got my Orca cycled after 2 days from the live rock going in, I was gobsmacked (Thanks Maidenhead Aquatics).
It's been running this week and I've got some of the Diotoms on the sand, glass and back and am well on the way to adding some clean up crew. I may well pop out to get a small batch tomorrow, then leave it a couple of weeks to settle down before adding the rest and doing some extra research into what to stock the tank with.
I pretty much know the fish, starting with the inevitable clowns and maybe a small yellow watchman goby or something. Not sure of the softies yet but that's a long way off at this stage.
My problem.
The 58ltr Orca is way under powered with its standard 400l/h pump which also drives the skimmer so I'm looking at doing some some upgrades. I have a Hydor Hydea K30 600l/h on the spray bar outlet (spray bar removed) and am putting a WG-308 skimmer in place of bog standard one when it arrives from Hong Kong.
I got a Hydor flow diverter but it mutes the water outlet so much that my surface is pretty much a mill pond for 2/3 of a revolution of the flow diverter and only sees any action on the last 1/3. I have removed this for the time being and get a much better agitation but as far as I can tell because it is more focused to the corner of the tank I am more likely to get dead spots. I want to keep surface agitation to prevent my PH from declining as it seems to have a tendancy to do.
I have lots of caves and spaces in the live rock so need good circulation.
I am now looking to get a Hydor Nano to put on the other side of the tank on the glass but this is rated a 900l/h which will give me about 32 x turnover in total which seems rather excessive!
On top of all this, because my existing Hydor is more powerful than the bog standard pump, it ends up pulling water back in through the extra outlet hole instead of through the filter which I have now had to block up to prevent this happening (the hole not the filter). Because of this I would like to have upgraded the bog standard one to something that will do a better job in keeping the compartments full. I've seen the Maxijet 600 suggested.
Any suggestions on how to organise this slighty better without sacrificing my surface agitation and without giving me silly turnover figures (unless I've grossly miscalculated) please?
Cheers
Mark
It's been running this week and I've got some of the Diotoms on the sand, glass and back and am well on the way to adding some clean up crew. I may well pop out to get a small batch tomorrow, then leave it a couple of weeks to settle down before adding the rest and doing some extra research into what to stock the tank with.
I pretty much know the fish, starting with the inevitable clowns and maybe a small yellow watchman goby or something. Not sure of the softies yet but that's a long way off at this stage.
My problem.
The 58ltr Orca is way under powered with its standard 400l/h pump which also drives the skimmer so I'm looking at doing some some upgrades. I have a Hydor Hydea K30 600l/h on the spray bar outlet (spray bar removed) and am putting a WG-308 skimmer in place of bog standard one when it arrives from Hong Kong.
I got a Hydor flow diverter but it mutes the water outlet so much that my surface is pretty much a mill pond for 2/3 of a revolution of the flow diverter and only sees any action on the last 1/3. I have removed this for the time being and get a much better agitation but as far as I can tell because it is more focused to the corner of the tank I am more likely to get dead spots. I want to keep surface agitation to prevent my PH from declining as it seems to have a tendancy to do.
I have lots of caves and spaces in the live rock so need good circulation.
I am now looking to get a Hydor Nano to put on the other side of the tank on the glass but this is rated a 900l/h which will give me about 32 x turnover in total which seems rather excessive!
On top of all this, because my existing Hydor is more powerful than the bog standard pump, it ends up pulling water back in through the extra outlet hole instead of through the filter which I have now had to block up to prevent this happening (the hole not the filter). Because of this I would like to have upgraded the bog standard one to something that will do a better job in keeping the compartments full. I've seen the Maxijet 600 suggested.
Any suggestions on how to organise this slighty better without sacrificing my surface agitation and without giving me silly turnover figures (unless I've grossly miscalculated) please?
Cheers
Mark
