whats your tank to sump turn over

[PaulieWalnuts]

i am setting up a 110 and will have a Q1 4000 High head and should have about 820 gph from the tank to the sump. I will also be dividing the flow between the skimmer and refuge section so is that enough flow to my sump. My skimmer pumps like 790 or 890 gph, so i know not to go over that.

SO what do you all run and does mine sound alright.

thanks
matt

 

[jjmcat]

Gosh thats a good question.I have never even thought of it.Lets see my return is a mag 18.My skimmer is around 600gph and my phosban reactor is about 100 gph.All this in a 55 gallon sump.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

well i just have heard to much flow in the skimmer section can flood it in a way...like trying breathe with you head out of the window going 60 mph. how much gph is a mag 18 and i am about to check out your build jjmcat. thanks for the reply

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

your tank is freaking sweet jjmcat...is the mcat referring to the test?

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I'm going to shoot for 5x. The main reasons for not going beyond 5x are:

1. Micro bubbles making their way up to the tank.

2. Not an efficient way to get flow in your tank, energy wise.

3. Noise.

That's it as far as I can remember. Before closed loops and more efficient powerheads, people used "tank to sump turnover" to get the flow in their tank. This is not very efficient when you try to get 30-40x turnover. In my opinion there IS such a thing as not enough flow through the sump. I suggest planning for more flow than you need. Then dial the pump back if you have to for whatever reason.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

ok good deals so i guess i will have about 5.5 with my total water volume being close to 150g. Chad, good thinking with the noise and such.

-matt

 

[m2434]

There is really no reason to have lots of flow to the sump. Some people argue that you want the flow to match the gph of your skimmer pump, or be a little higher, so that there is always unskimmed water going to your skimmer. I'm not sure I completely believe that this is necessary, but it provides a reference value anyway :lol:

 

[luv4paws2]

I have a mag 12 on mine with about 35% going through the fuge and the rest through a filter sock.

 

[widmer]

I've got ~300 gph turnover. Working out great for me...

As long as you're paying attention to watts, my return pump is only 20 watts lol its a maxi jet 1200.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

i don't pay the electric bill lol

 

[limitdown]

My return pump does 10x and I've got another 30x in powerheads. Large angels, triggers and tangs like big flow.

 

[jjmcat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13540773#post13540773 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PaulieWalnuts
well i just have heard to much flow in the skimmer section can flood it in a way...like trying breathe with you head out of the window going 60 mph. how much gph is a mag 18 and i am about to check out your build jjmcat. thanks for the reply

Mag 18 is 1800 gph.With the head loss its around 1500 gph.I think the drains are about 750 gph each.So I guess it is alot of flow.If the pump ever goes down I will probably go to a smaller pump since I have four Koralia 4s in the display now.

 

[seagirl]

My return is only about 3x.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

its cool to see all the different flow rates. thanks for the replys all keep them coming!

 

[IslandCrow]

Some people argue that you want the flow to match the gph of your skimmer pump, or be a little higher, so that there is always unskimmed water going to your skimmer.

Yeah, I don't buy that either. Even the best skimmers are nowhere near 100% efficient (otherwise, we wouldn't have recirculating skimmers), so there's absolutely nothing wrong with running the same water through the skimmer a second time. There's still plenty of DOC in there to pull out. When I broadcast feed my corals, I turn off the return pump, but keep the skimmer going (mostly just to keep water movement in the sump). Even after a couple hours, it's still producing just about as much skimmate as it does when the return pump is running.