lots of questions about my pump, corals, etc.

Hi. I'm semi-new to the hobby, although I really have been enjoying it. I had an aquarium service that was maintaining my tank, which is about 110 gallons and 3 years old. I've been taking over and adding new items, because I was frankly thinking I could do a better job and make it look better. But, I am no expert by any means. So I have some questions.

My tank is an odd shape, more square than most. It is about 42 inches wide by 38 inches deep and 24 across. I have an Outter Orbitz light that has 2 x 250 watt metal halides and then the 4 actinic lights and some night led's. The metal halides run for 6 hours a day, with the actinic lights turning on 1 hour before and staying on 1 hour later, so 8 hours total. Led's stay on all the time.

My tank is on the main floor of my house, and all the equipment is in the basement mechanical room below. I mention this because one of my main questions is about tank flow. I have a Blue Line 100 pump, which says it is about 1900 GPH flow. But, the pump is running through about 20 feet of pipe, and up about 14 feet from the sump to the tank. I don't have any powerheads at all. Forgive me for not knowing the proper wording for these, but the pump goes up to the tank, and has two snake like arms where the water flows out. It flows so hard out of those two tubes, that my aquarium guy and I had decided to shut the ball valve to about half so make it not flow out so hard. That worries me that it could burn out the pump. But also, I wanted to know if that pump alone means I don't need any powerheads. And, if I don't need those, is it right for me to be limiting the flow from my main pump by shutting that ball valve? When I open it all the way, it whips the water around so much it knocks my corals over.

Next, I had a couple specific coral questions. I'm going to attach a few photos showing my setup in case it helps. Anyway, I have a Christmas tree coral and it has a lot of algae on it. Will this hurt it, and if so, how do I get it off?

I have this mushroom coral that is cool, but it has a small patch that turned all white, and no pollup things stick out there anymore. I thought at first it touched the coral next to it (which I have no idea what it is, but it looks like a branch of some type) and got hurt, but I watch it and it never touches the one next to it? Any ideas what's wrong and if I can fix it?

I have this bubble coral that looks like it's half dead, because it has just a hard skeleton like look on one side of it. Is this dead, and what could have cause this?

I have this torch coral that the tentacles kind of look wrinkly sometimes. Is this normal?

I also have this leather finger type coral and it got moved last week and seems squished. Some of the fingers are starting to turn white-ish in color now, instead of it's normal green. Does this mean it's dying?

Finally, I have this yellow sunflower coral and I did my best to give it shade, but my tank is pretty well lit, and there isn't a lot of it. Will this kill it? It opens up ok once the metal halides go off, but I'd rather give it to my friend than kill it if it has to be in total shade. I put it under a big rock ledge and am hoping it will be ok. Some of the buds never have opened up though at all, so I don't know.

I'm sorry for all the questions at once, but I'm excited to be working on making my tank better, and I just want to be sure to learn and do all I can to keep everything healthy.

Thanks in advance.

 

More pics

Here were a few more photos.

 

Beautiful tank! Your sun coral is fine where it is. I have one and it is under shade but still only comes out once the MH are off! It is beautiful and as long as it is getting enough to eat you should be fine! They are not photosynetic corals (sp?).

Your torch looks fine and happy!

That is what I can answer but I know someone else can answer the rest!

I would like to know what the purple tipped item is on your second post last picture.

 

if you wanted to decrease the flow from the main pump couldnt you just add a larger diameter line?

 

It has been my exp. that the opposite is true. The smaller the dia. the lesser the flow and visa-versa. Luna

 

If you want less flow you could try adding more heads to the output of your pump, this would disperse your flow better, Your torch looks fine, from what it sounds like though some of your corals are beginning to bleach out, what are your params? and that last coral pic you posted is an elegance coral, they tend not to do very well in captivity if memory servs, how long have you had yours?

 

As for the rest of your Q's;
The way I see it, there are two ways of creating flow in a tank. You can either get a big pump and find ways to disperse the flow or get a smaller pump and install multiple power heads(PH) in the main tank. I myself like and have the first scenario. I have a Magdrive 18 with about 3'-3'.6 of LocLine side outlet nozzles(which is this, just alot of them put together)

Having these avoids having to buy multiple PH's, which means less power cords to plug in. It also avoids your livestock from getting sucked into it and dying. You can direct each nozzle to where ever you want or need flow and it also helps to disperse the pressure.

You can better help your Christmas Tree coral by pin-pointing whats causing the algae in the first place. Have you tested your Po4 and No3 levels?
Did the Bubble Coral die under your care or did you buy it like that? It looks fine to me.
My Torch Coral looks the same sometimes, I think that yours looks fine also.
Your Leather doesnt sound to good, unless its shedding.
The Sun Coral is fine where you have it, just remember that it isnt a photosynetic coral, as mentioned below. You will need to target feed this coral, either by hand or some kind of syringe. Once they "smell" the food, they will open up.
Luna

 

as far as all the corals go these guys can answer much better than me, but as far as the return pump goes to turn the output of a pump down does nothing but good to the pump and your electric bill, the pump will run cooler and use less amps running this way, however if you close off or restrict the intake then you will have problems with the pump, you can restrict the pump all you want on the output side.....