Tank flow

[Phishnoob]

Are there rules of thumb for flow in a tank. I have a 90g with 25g sump and am going to buy a couple of powerheads and am wondering if my sump pump is big enough. Right now the biggest pump I have is the one recommended by EV for the skimmer. If my main pump for recirc from the sump is too little I will ditch the Rio and get a quality one and use that for transferring water from the top off bin.

Also, is the flow of the water in gph added to the output of the sump pump...or do the powerheads just create current.

Thanks,
Phishnoob

[Geoff]

when calculating total flow you add up all of the pumps.

as for flow through the sump, i recommend that your return pump only pumps out as much as the skimmer processes. the greater the flow through the sump the greater the chances for bubbles to make it into the display. this is why closed loops are so popular. you are able to add as much flow as you want without haveing to worry about overflows being pushed to the max, or bubbles being returned to the display.

G~