Flow or No Flow What is the question ?

[landshark]

Need lesson in FLow 101 -

9 ft vertical head pressure to tank.

External pumps - Iwaki RLT70
Sequence - 4300
New PS4 - Cute little thing and QUIET
I am conspiring against the objective, I think

Tank overflow - 2 1.5" Two lines form Y to single feed to sump in floor below (less holes drilled throught living room floor ?)

Sump Return - 1 " line from sum to tank split to 1 " Y to .75 " return ports.

I wanted to switch the 2.9a iwaki to PS4 for noise and power consumption, however, greatly reduced flow thru sump and return.
If I stay with PS4 for return will definately have to down size loc lines to .50 inch spraybar to see much movement.

Will have major flow with the Seq 4300 on CLS no worries here.

My question is what kind of FLOW should I be trying to acheive to the sump thru SKIMMER and then return for my 175G (Volume is 150G) setup ?

Is there a matrix grid that some engineer has prepared I can see that give the objective to have ReefTank Utopia for first soft corals then SPS LPS ?

I have serious return flow with the Iwaki, just too much power / noise ?

Think the specs on the PS4 say, for 10ft head appx 14 gpm = 840 gph ? Is that suffient and did I calc properly ?

[Fly Guy]

I think it sounds fine....BUT need to know what skimmer and skimmer pump you are running to be sure.

[Twitterbait]

the simple rule to run a skimmer well is to match the flow rate from the tank return to the same rate the skimmer is skimming, or you can set the skimmer to skim more.

[landshark]

Is also the rule to skim 24/7 ? Was thinking of xx hours a day ?

I had the Seq 4300 as return for a bit and moving alot more water than the PS4.

I will check the skimmer rate to return pump rate tonight.


What is the turnover rate of tank water volume gallons per hour through the sump and back to tank for many successful Reef tanks ? Need a reference point ? 10 times, 15 times, 20 times or less ?

If tank is 150g water volume = 10 times an hour means 1500 gph return pump flow rate, correct ?
This implies the PS4 at 840gph is only near 5 times an hour turnover rate ? Is this not good ?

Do you guys agree that I would get near double the overflow rate (gravity) with two seperate 1.5" lines vs. them forming "Y" to sump ?

Kind of like two lanes of cars going same speed will get near double the number of cars to the line vs. having to merge into one lane to get there ?

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by landshark

What is the turnover rate of tank water volume gallons per hour through the sump and back to tank for many successful Reef tanks ? Need a reference point ? 10 times, 15 times, 20 times or less ?

If tank is 150g water volume = 10 times an hour means 1500 gph return pump flow rate, correct ?


Do you guys agree that I would get near double the overflow rate (gravity) with two seperate 1.5" lines vs. them forming "Y" to sump ?

Kind of like two lanes of cars going same speed will get near double the number of cars to the line vs. having to merge into one lane to get there ?

The answer to your first question i quoted here depends on how big your sump is and how much water your skimmer is processing....it really has nothing ot do with your display tank size.


I dont see why you would need double the overflow rate. One 1.5" drain will handle your 800 gph or so you were talking about all day long, even with a snail clogging the line Disclaimer- that snail CANT be a mexican turbo.

[leveldrummer]

i dont think there is a good equation for a diplay turnover, slow turn over is fine if your skimmer has more time to get the gunk out, then your dumping cleaner water into the tank... just slowly. i would shoot for a 5x turnover, your not gonna get much flow, but all the water should be skimmed very efficiently, flow should always come from powerheads or a CLS, you dont want to pound water past your skimmer just to get your xenia to wave.

[landshark]

It's amazing how most of this makes sense after you guys tell me the answer :-)

Just means I built the tank with MEGA overflow (2 x 1.5") lines, then
halved merged those two into one line before the sump for no good reason,
only to send grand rapids past my skimmer and return the same gunk
back to the tank (with gusto) via the seq 4300 for no apparent reason.
All part of the learning process.... Of course, if I had NEMO in the tank
he'd still be dirty. Dang this hobby is fun even before the coral or fish.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by landshark

It's amazing how most of this makes sense after you guys tell me the answer :-)

Just means I built the tank with MEGA overflow (2 x 1.5") lines, then
halved merged those two into one line before the sump for no good reason,

Over sized and/or redundant drain lines is a GOOD thing IMO.

I have 2- 1.5" drain lines on my 90 in an external overflow box. Im only running 700 gph through them.

[leveldrummer]

alot of people do what your saying, put a huge return pump on a huge tank, i also thought thats the best way, i have a pcx 55 on my 120, i set it up so i would get alot of flow into the tank, but its pointless, i had so much flow, i had to cut the valve down about half way and restrict the pump, so i wasnt getting micro bubbles blowing back into the tank, it finally just made sense to add a couple large powerheads, and downsize the pump, (which i have the pump, but havent done the work yet) it will be quieter, cooler, cleaner, so many better things.