What's your turnover rate in your sps tank?

[reefried]

first of all are you serrious my logic was easy to follow.........................now lets follow yours so using your logic your tank could never drain 5000 gph or even 2500 and i have no idea what a splitter is(do you mean sending half the flow to one side and half to the other side of the tank?? like a swquid) and would that also mean that your sump was moving the same 5000 gph???????............so your sump would look like a jacuzzi?????????...

.....if you set-up a tank like that it would fail before you even stocked it, look around here are there any people with a smaller tank ie under 200 galls and over 30 who have no water movement from either a powerhead or closed loop, or surge device and just run a return as sole flow

 

[reefried]

wow all im saying people is that sps require high flow and unless your talking about a 500 gallon tank and a serrious pump, or such a small tank that you dont need extra flow, then no you shouldnt count it as flow.........the op has a 75 and will most likely use (if its even drilled, otherwise this is all useless as he'll be ONLY using powerheads) a mag 9.5 or a ehiem or a quiet one and its better to get yourself a guaranteed 2000-4000 gph of flow in the tank by NOT counting the return which will put out ABOUT a measly 500 gph when were talking about 2 tunze streams or 2 mp40's or mp 20's at about 2000 gph per powerhead or even a maxi mod which will put out 1600-2100 gph so what does the 400-500 your getting from the return really do??????

....so IMO its better to use your return as just that a RETURN, as its benefit to your system is much greater as a means of nutrient export instead of a means of water movement.....nuf said

 

[reefried]

Why should they not? Flow is flow is flow. Coral doesn't care what generated it.

As to returns ... For my part, I have a Herbie drain. So if my return flow was slowing down even a tiny bit, I'd know it immediately and have to adjust the valve. Granted, I dismantle and clean the pump twice a year or so, but it ain't slowing down. Maybe YOUR return is clogged and unreliable, but not everyone's is.

Your blanket statement is badly flawed.

put a meter on it it slowed down the moment you plugged it in

 

[dixiedog]

You're kinda babbling, bro. (Or sis?)

But this is obviously VERY important to you, I get that much ... LOL

 

[sirreal63]

first of all are you serrious my logic was easy to follow.........................now lets follow yours so using your logic your tank could never drain 5000 gph or even 2500 as i have no idea what a splitter is(do you mean sending half th flow to one side and half o the other side of the tank?? like a swquid) and would that also mean that your sump was moving the same 5000 gph???????............so your sump would look like a jacuzzi?????????...

.....if you set-up a tank like that it would fail before you even stocked it, look around here are there any people with a smaller tank ie under 100 galls who have no water movement from either a powerhead or closed loop, or surge device and just run a return as sole flow

Relax, not an attack, but you have to remember when making a statement like that, that not everyone follows the same logic. Not a squid for alternating current, it impedes water flow too much, but an Ocean Motion device is capable of 7500 gph, and yes some people do use a large return pump and large drains to accommodate it and prefer to not use powerheads. Not the way I do things personally, but it is done. I prefer small return pumps, slow flow through the sump and lots of high flow powerheads. While I don't disagree with you completely, I have been around long enough to know there are many ways to set up and run a system, and none is right and none is wrong, just different.

Spend a few hours in the large tank forum and see the variety of setups that are used. Some may shock you, some may make you giggle, but in the end variety is a good thing.

 

[Felixc395]

Haha, thank you for posting bit let's not get into a huge argument. I do appreciate the input however.

I'm thinking of this setup for my 75 gallon:
two mp10's or mp20's
two 1250 gph coralvue's

How's this sound? This is around 5,500 gph without the return pump included which is about 75 times turnover rate.

Also are the coralvue's wavemaker compatible without dying early?

 

[waldomas]

I think about 50 times turnover is a good place to START. This may be appropriate for a very modestly landscaped tank w/o much rockwork and coral to obstruct the flow.

I also believe its the general consensus that you can't have too much flow considering your trying to mimic the ocean (lol), unless of course your water is spilling and splashing over the sides, or the flow is too laminar tearing flesh from inverts.

 

[sirreal63]

Felix, that will be fine. Once the corals grow they will block some flow and you may need to change things up a bit.

 

[Felixc395]

Thanks, that's great to hear!

And does anyone know if the coralvue pumps are wavemaker compatible?

 

[jungliztkruger]

In my 10 gallon barebottom I have a vortech mp10 cranked up all the way and whatever else is coming from the maxi jet on the remora

 

[lolgranny]

I have 70x in my 40g breeder BB.

Will up it eventually

 

[Dave71]

FWIW I would get the MP20 over the MP10. You can upgrade the MP20 to an MP40 when you get your bigger tank.

MP10 cannot be upgraded.

 

[Felixc395]

FWIW I would get the MP20 over the MP10. You can upgrade the MP20 to an MP40 when you get your bigger tank.

MP10 cannot be upgraded.

That is a good point. Does the mp20 have the same controller as the mp10 and mp40? From pictures it looks blue rather than the white. But that is a good idea and I'll probably do that.

 

[Mr. Right]

I have around 50 x turnover in my mixed tank. I keep it on the lower side because of my LPS.

 

[LifeAquatic]

Turnover

Turnover

I think about 50 times turnover is a good place to START. This may be appropriate for a very modestly landscaped tank w/o much rockwork and coral to obstruct the flow.

I also believe its the general consensus that you can't have too much flow considering your trying to mimic the ocean (lol), unless of course your water is spilling and splashing over the sides, or the flow is too laminar tearing flesh from inverts.

When you guys use the term turnover you mean how many times the tank completely cycles in a hour? Are we taking combined GPH for return pumps and dividing by total water volume? If thats the case my turnover rate is 8 times per hour. Do you mean 50x a day? Or hour? 50x an hour seems like alot to me.

 

[manix man]

When you guys use the term turnover you mean how many times the tank completely cycles in a hour? Are we taking combined GPH for return pumps and dividing by total water volume? If thats the case my turnover rate is 8 times per hour. Do you mean 50x a day? Or hour? 50x an hour seems like alot to me.

It's all your powerheads and return pump added up per hour generally.

If you were just turning over 8 times an hour you would have a hell of a lot of slime coming off sps let alone the fact they wouldn't last long.

 

[serpentman]

I personally view flow from the returns as "bonus flow" and do not consider it in my overall estimations (which for all intense and purposes are probably inaccurate). The rationale behind this is most return lines produce a weak laminar flow. Although this does contribute to the overall movement in the tank, IME, its weak and directional and doesn't really do much in for me in a large tank.

With that being said, the maximum capacity of all my pumps is ~17,000gph. Since they are controllable, at any given time I would say a realistic number is closer to ~10,000gph.

 

[Canadian]

You're kinda babbling, bro. (Or sis?)

But this is obviously VERY important to you, I get that much ... LOL

Well played sir or madam. LOL

 

[wickedfish]

I mp40 es full throttle and a return that pumps approx. 1200g's per hour and My return is week. I think I need 2400gph and another mp40es.

 

[LifeAquatic]

Turnover

Turnover

It's all your powerheads and return pump added up per hour generally.

If you were just turning over 8 times an hour you would have a hell of a lot of slime coming off sps let alone the fact they wouldn't last long.

Maybe Im a little off. I consider turnover to be how many times the tank cycled through the sump and back to tank in an hour. I measure in-tank flow by given gph multiplied by number of powerheads im using. I dont consider flow and turnover to be the same. I would factor in-tank flow produced from the return but its not much. It seems important to know both.