What's your turnover rate in your sps tank?

[waldomas]

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.

I don't think your off, however many use turnover to mean total gallons in the display. A 100 gal display would need 100 gallons of flow/hour thru the display. Flow gallons considered wouldn't have to pass thru the sump to benifit the display.

 

[Felixc395]

Thank you all for your input. I just have a quick question.

How can you tell if a pump is wavemaker compatible? I know many pumps can die easily from the constant on/off cycles.

 

[waldomas]

Try contacting the manufacturor. I would think that may void the warranty.

 

[waldomas]

BTW Felixc,

I would use two MP40s on your 75.

You could then minimize flow thru your sump maximizing efficiency. Have just enough to keep up w/ your skimmer.

 

[Felixc395]

Interesting. Now would that be enough flow? That'd be 6000 gph so that would be a 80x tunover rate which sounds good to me! Then if necessary I could add a coralvue 1250 or two when my tank grows out. Sound good?

 

[manix man]

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.

Oh yeah I see what you mean totally, it's just how people express the powerheads I guess and it's become a common method if you like to demonstrate the flow around the tank.

 

[manix man]

So just out of interest it would seem to me you guys in the USA seem to consider 50x turnover the minimum for a sps tank?

I'm running more like 40x at the min - not stacked with sps in the tank by no means but even to me I was thinking of increasing it

 

[serpentman]

So just out of interest it would seem to me you guys in the USA seem to consider 50x turnover the minimum for a sps tank?

I'm running more like 40x at the min - not stacked with sps in the tank by no means but even to me I was thinking of increasing it

40x is fine. As your corals develop into large colonies, flow gets trickier and trickier and you may have to increase.

IMO, you can have 100x flow and risk peeling the flesh off of one coral and still struggle to get into the nooks and grannies of another.

 

[Felixc395]

Does anyone know what the approximate turnover rate is in the ocean? By this i mean what would be the equivalent turnover rate in a aquarium that mocks the ocean's natural turnover rate. Is this possible to replicate or is the number just too high?

 

[waldomas]

Interesting. Now would that be enough flow? That'd be 6000 gph so that would be a 80x tunover rate which sounds good to me! Then if necessary I could add a coralvue 1250 or two when my tank grows out. Sound good?

You could always turn down the flow to start, and ramp it up as the reef grows.
I think they would work great! They are very efficient and highly controllable.

I think Serpentman said it best regaurding flow. It really depends on the setup. Placement of rock and corals will determine flow patterns!

I am unsure of our ability to closely mimic ocean flow within relatively small bodies of water.

Perhaps hydrodynamics will help to design a new type of aquarium with strange and beautiful shapes to mimic oceanic flow.

 

[JSeymour]

It's pretty much impossible to recreate ocean flow rates in an aquarium. I read an article once that explained ocean currents and how they relate to aquariums. I don't remember the exact numbers(would vary depending on tank size), but it was somewhere around 100,000x tank volume and 5-10 ft/sec(reef crests). This would likely create waves that would empty your tank quickly.

 

[waldomas]

Yeah....with a crumbling motion!

 

[waldomas]

Or shattering rather

 

[Felixc395]

WOW! Now that's some serious flow!

 

[JSeymour]

So I can't seem to find the original article, but for reef crest areas(one of the fastest areas on a reef) 365cm/sec is not unheard of. That's like dropping a piece of mysis shrimp on one side of a 12 foot tank and it hitting the far side in less than a second. That's fast! Staghorns, expecially slimers, live in these harsh zones. Further reading, I found that a large amount of sps corals are found in inner reef flat zones. These areas are high light, 85+% surface PAR, with flows ranging from 2-60cm/sec, averaging around 20cm/sec. That's averaging 8"/sec, or a range of ~1"-24"/sec. This is definitely replicatable. Lagoons in summer have currents measuring around 15-25cm/sec, with some tidal currents reaching 400cm/sec. Winter currents can be reduced by as much as 80%.

So water flow definitely varies quite abit, even for sps dominated zones. I tried watching a piece of food float around the tank I mentioned earlier. It's hard to determin with the loops and twists in the flow, but I'm guessing around 5 feet in two seconds, or 75 cm/sec with some areas that were around 4"/sec or almost 5cm/sec.

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

90
mp40w and a koralia 1400

175
4 mp40w

I am considering adding a strong tunze stream 2 in the 175 because I can better aim its flow.

 

[jammoye2]

I have 106 in my 75: 3 koralia ev0 1400s, 1 modded maxjet 1200 and 1 Koralia 4.

 

[glennr1978]

in my 40 breeder...
mp10 100% reefcrest random
mp20 100% reffcrest random
return pump ~500gph

so at any given moment I've got upward of 4000gph churning in my display.

 

[Flems]

In my 65g Ive got:

MP40w @ 75% Reef Crest
&
Koralia 2

 

[RenoR1]

I just calculated a 37.5 turnover with 2650gph moving in the dt. Thats on a k2,3,4 and the return pump Y'all think that is enough for SPS? I'm just now getting into the SPS range.