Need Some Flow Recommendations

[joshnpowell]

Hello Everybody,

First I want to thank everybody for all of the help you have given me thus far. It is really nice to have a place to come to where you can receive some friendly advice.

So here is my current question. I am wondering if I have enough flow in my aquarium. As I said before, it is a 75 gallon tank with a 29 gallon sump tank that has three chambers. The return pump that I am using is a Jebao DC 6000. Inside of my display tank I have a Jebao RW-8. Is the combination of the return flow into my tank and the RW-8 wavemaker enough flow in my tank or do I need more? I am planning on having coral in the tank as well.

Thanks for the help!

 

[SFish]

How much flow do you have now?

Low 20 to 30x

Medium 30 to 40x

High 40 to 100+x

Total water turn over (return pump+power heads)

 

[thegrun]

+1, help us out by listing the flow of your pumps so we don't have to look them up ourselves (I'm lazy). Also what types of corals were you planning on? For soft corals you want about 30 times your DT in flow (2250 GPH), for SPS corals 40-50+ times (3000-3750+).

 

[mcgyvr]

To add to SFish's good "total flow" numbers its a common recommendation of 3-5X display volume for just the return pump flow (flow rate through sump only)

 

[joshnpowell]

The max flow on the DC-6000 is: 1585 GPH
The max flow on the RW-8 is: 2100 GPH

I have both of them turned to around 40% or so, so I would say I am flowing around 1600 to 1800 GPH give or take a little bit.

I am getting a good deal on some GSP, Birdsnest coral, zoanthid, mushrooms and digitata coral frags. I currently have a Xenia Tree in there as well, and some Kenya Trees that came out of my live rock.

 

[Ron Reefman]

So the math is pretty simple.

You have 1600 to 1800gph of water movement and divide that by 75g tank equals 21 to 24 turns in the DT. That's fairly low, especially for lps and sps corals. And rather than just ramping up your existing pumps, I'd suggest either another RW8 or a Crossflow. That will also help make your flow more random. And you could even run them a bit higher and put them on timers or better yet, an Apex and really vary the flow. One pump on, the other off, switch pumps, run them both for 2 to 4 hours during the day, maybe even shut them both off for an hour or 2 at night or when you feed (if that's the same time every day).

 

[joshnpowell]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm going to order a crossflow to put in the opposite side of my tank. Thanks again for all of the help!