Overflow Rate

[Tripspike]

I have a 42 gallon extra tall tank with an external overflow box. There is a skimmer mounted in the tank and a gravity overflow U tube which directs the water into the overflow box which gravity feeds to a wet/dry filter and is then pumped back up to the tank.

What is the appropriate tank turnover for the skimmer/tank setup? Is there a standard?

Thanks for the input.

Trip

 

[troybob333]

For a sump most people do a 3-4 times turnover rate an hour, or for you 126-168 gallons per hour. You can do more like 5-6 times an hour though but I'm not sure what is best for a wet/dry.

 

[Tripspike]

Thank you. Would a 15 times turnover be too much? The current pump is 350 GPH and would like to upgrade the pump to 650 GPH. Would this be detrimental to my "retention time" in the wet/dry filter?

Trip

 

[troybob333]

15 times would be too much. If you want to have more flow in your tank it would be better to either add some powerheads into the tank or do a closed loop which isn't really that hard to do. I'm sure people on here would be happy to help with how to set it up.