The first tank ran from 1999 to 2009 200 gallon pump 1100 gph
Second tank 300DD ran from 2009 to 2016 pump#1 1100gph 24/7, second pump 480gph ran 12/7
Third tank 180 ran from 2016 to 2019 M1 at 50% and a tunze powerhead
4th tank 310 2019 to current tunze on one side and MP40 on the other with M1 80% (Pictured above)
Last picture was a 158 that was in my office that I had from 2003 to 2008 which I sold when my company moved. 1100 gph no power heads
I know there are much better looking tanks than mine, but I never had a crash or an issue with nutrient control. My skimmer is a 17 year old Urchin Pro.
Great pictures and congrats on the success.
Each system is diffrent both in demand and care. I am sure if I use your flow, my coral will not survive or look the way it is now,and if I pass on to you my flow (6 mp40s on a 160g tank) your coral will not be happy since your system is lps and softies.
Lps and softies like dirtier water than sps...I know this can be debated to death that's just what I have experinces and do on my systems which are always sps dominant.
This means lps and softies are more forgiving on nutrient exports and like bit less aggressive flow.
As I said before,
In tank flow discussion is bit diffrent than return flow rate. I believe while they 9verlap in one or 2 areas, they are used for diffrent purposes.
If your return flow rate is not sufficient, your filtration equipment will be less efficient cause not enough new water is coming to the equipments to be filtered. At least return flow rate should greater than skimmer flow rate..at lest this is a must. Thatd all what am saying.
At the end of the day if you know the system you are running by all means optimized for it, but if you do not know yet, I think its wise to budget bit above to what you need.
Finally, when it come to dc pumps the gph number in the box means nothing and usually you lose half or even more than half once you connect it to your plumbing.
I used to have vectra L1..3100gph. When I measured the flow rate using reliable flow meter it was giving 650gph...at that time my system was not optimized to the paramaters I was aiming for and my skimmer was underperforming. I used to call royal execlusive complaining that my bk mini 200 is bad. They asked me to up the flow which triggered me to measure flow rate btw.
Ince I changed my flow, upped it to 1300gph, the perfomance of the skimmer dramatically improved and I was able to co teol my nutrients better...
No one I saying system will crash..we are discussing optimum and tuning...
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