Is this enough flow?

[Mike 1911A1]

I have a 90g AGA. With my return pump and 4 power heads I calculated 1521gph or 16.9x flow (not counting the pump on my skimmer in the sump). I currently have 120lbs LR, 100lb LS, 6 fishes, hammer, frogspawn, mushrooms and a variety of zoos. Is this flow enough? What rate is considered optimal? Any help appreciated.

Mike

 

[petesreef]

Sounds like enough to me. Unless you notice "dead" spots where algae might build. Which then you might just adjust powerheads to get flow in such areas. Good luck

 

[Mike 1911A1]

Any idea what is considered optimal? I have read some people say 10x and others go crazy with 50x or more!?

 

[Zaphod]

it depends on what you want to keep. softies you will be fine sps then you will want to look much higher.

 

[chemisfun11]

10 - 20 times is optimal with a reef system. You don't want too much flow between your sump and return otherwise you won't have enough contact time with your skimmer. Powerheads can always be added and moved slightly to change the flow patterns inside the tank, and others use waveboxes or similar devices to create a more wavelike flow.

 

[petesreef]

Does your seaclone pull out much??? I changed my seaclone for a turbo flotor skimmer, alot better skimming I noticed. Jut wondering , I didn't have much luck with the seaclone in bigger tanks, so I strapped it on the back of my 12gal nano, works good on it. Had more cyano algae outbreaks in the bigger tank using the seaclone.

 

[Mike 1911A1]

Pete,

That's a good questions that I asked in another thread but didn't get much of an answer. My Seaclone 150 accumulates about half a collection cup in 7 days. I was trying to find out if that was normal/acceptable for my setup and the bioload listed above. I would be interested in hearing your experience. How much does your turbo pull out? How much did your seaclone pull out? Also, I should mention that my seaclone is in the sump, not hang-on.

Mike

 

[GARFVolunteer]

Re: Is this enough flow?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6933507#post6933507 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mike 1911A1
I have a 90g AGA. With my return pump and 4 power heads I calculated 1521gph or 16.9x flow (not counting the pump on my skimmer in the sump). I currently have 120lbs LR, 100lb LS, 6 fishes, hammer, frogspawn, mushrooms and a variety of zoos. Is this flow enough? What rate is considered optimal? Any help appreciated.

Mike

For what you have in the tank, the current flow you have would be good enough. My wife's 60 gallon tank has basically the same type corals with a single powerhead in one corner and the corals seem to love it.

For an SPS tank, the 16 gph would be close to the minimum...

Thanks,

Scott

 

[jdhanover]

I've been puzzled a bit by this as well. For ease of discussion, let's define flow as water between tank and sump and movement as current in the tank.
I am sensing that the flow can be 3-5x the tank volume so that the skimmer can crank. The movement should be more but that can be achieved via a closed loop or with powerheads.
I really would appreciate an answer (well, in this hobby, some opinions anyway )as it will impact what return pump and skimmer I get for my eventual 135g tank.
Maybe I am wrong but this does seem logical that the flow can be less than the movement.

 

[fareforce]

I only run 500gph through my sump, so water moves kinda slow through it. This allows a lot of contact time with my skimmer. To make up the rest of the flow I use powerheads, which are all coming out next weekend because my wavebox is coming in.

IMO if you can afford it a wave box it the way to go. The wave2k (about $215) produces the equivelent of 4000gph! Best part is, it is silent, and doesn't take up near the room as that many powerheads.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

I'd want a littler more if I were you. I use Tunze streams and my return to push about 4000 gph through my 125 -- about 32X turnover in the display. Sump handles 800 of that, a little faster than I wanted 3-5X is good in a sump.

What kind of substrate do you have? For BB, I'd vote for around 50X. For sand (I have SSB) bottoms, 25-35X -- much more and you can't keep the sand in place in certain spots.

 

[jdhanover]

Great - thanks for the input. I will shoot for 600-750 gph through the sump and then use a closed loop for the rest.

 

[Mike 1911A1]

This is great. Alot of good info. BTW, since my main source of filtration is LR, should I focus as much movement as possible through the LR? It only stands to reason.

Mike

 

[nait002]

I run 2 seio 2600 and 2 1100's on my 120 tall. My sump return is running around 400 gph. For a total of 5200 gph. Right now I'm running a seaclone 100 and pulling 3/4 cup of skim a day. The amount of skim is up since I added the 2600.