Waterflow in a 15 gallon column

[Endevor]

Greetings all,

I have a tank currently set up with a small submersible pump to get everything cycling. My plan is to have an overflow box drop water down into a smaller tank in the stand to do my filtering, then pump it back up and back into the tank down 2 pipes in the back corners of the tank that will shoot out the water out for my flow. My question is how much waterflow should I be pushing? I've heard anything from 10x gallons to 50x gallons.

First off, here are the products I'm looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/Eshopps-PF-30...UTF8&colid=CJR7UR57UTOI&coliid=I1OLY6EPMLJ4FP
http://www.amazon.com/Rio-10HF-Hype...UTF8&colid=CJR7UR57UTOI&coliid=I1ASVWXDMO10FG

I read on a review that someone else had this set up and it worked, but they're rated for different gph. I believe the overflow box is only 200gph and the pump is 660. Am I going to overfill my main tank doing this or is this a good combination and enough gph? Are there any better suggestions?

Thanks,

 

[Endevor]

Ok, after more research, I discovered fairly quickly that a 200gph overflow will not work with a 660gph pump. So using the rule of thumb 30-40x gph for my tank making it 450-600gph, I'm now looking at getting an eshopps PF-800 which has a 800gph overflow and then finding a pump within the 450-600 range. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking at roughly 50$ or cheaper range.

 

[reefscape15]

For flow in the tank, depending on what you plan on keeping, 20x-50x is a good place to shoot for. As far as your sump is concerned, you want a much slower flow through it. At most probably 10x tank volume per hour. I've always been told that 3-5x turnover through a sump is ideal. For in tank flow you will probably need a powerhead or 2.

 

[Endevor]

So you would suggest maybe 200gph down to the sump and 200 back up? What issues would arise by a faster waterflow through the sump? And I might want to explain what exactly I plan to do before I screw something up, haha.

My thought process was just to have a seperate tank below, most likely a 5 gallon of some sort to fit in the stand. I'd then flow my water down into it where a penguin 150 and aquaticlife mini skimmer will be filtering through, and then pump it back up at 550gph to act as my powerheads. Mainly I want this because there's not enough room on the back of the tank to hold both a skimmer and filter. Would the increased waterflow to the sump diminish filtration or overfill a tank? Or am I thinking this completely wrong? It would also be really nice to see as few mechanics as possible which is why I don't really want to just stick powerheads in there.

 

[E30 E T A]

So you would suggest maybe 200gph down to the sump and 200 back up? What issues would arise by a faster waterflow through the sump? And I might want to explain what exactly I plan to do before I screw something up, haha.

My thought process was just to have a seperate tank below, most likely a 5 gallon of some sort to fit in the stand. I'd then flow my water down into it where a penguin 150 and aquaticlife mini skimmer will be filtering through, and then pump it back up at 550gph to act as my powerheads. Mainly I want this because there's not enough room on the back of the tank to hold both a skimmer and filter. Would the increased waterflow to the sump diminish filtration or overfill a tank? Or am I thinking this completely wrong? It would also be really nice to see as few mechanics as possible which is why I don't really want to just stick powerheads in there.

If the flow through the sump is too fast the filters may not be as effective.

I would ditch the penguin and toss in purigen and chemipure

 

[Endevor]

I could definitely see that. Maybe instead then having the water flow directly through filters instead of pooling to be sucked back up by a filter. Does anyone know of any pre-made sumps for a nano? Honestly thought this would be a lot simpler that it seems like it's going to be.