wanna get it just right

[leveldrummer]

i think the flow of my tank is a little on the low side. i wanna bring it up, i think my return pump is too small, i have the quiet one 1200, its supposed to push 400 gph (my tank is 46 gal btw) but at 4 ft of head, its down to 200 thats only a 4x turnover. what is a more reccomended turn over rate? or is this ok and i should just add powerheads? or both? upgrade the return and get some small powerheads. everything is doing great so far, but im getting alot of detrius settling, i wanna get more flow to keep it suspended, but i dont want so much that its rearranging my sand. any ideas?

[BGJ223]

IMHO I don't think that you should increase your return from your sump. A better idea would be to add a CLS and/or some power heads.

The great the flow returning from your sump, the more likely that you will get microbubbles in your display tank.

[theplatypus]

A cls or powerheads is in order. If you start pushing too much water through your sump you end up with micro bubble problems.

[reefBoyDc]

Yes, only put as much through your sump as the skimmer can handle. Look into tunze streams if you have the $$ and don't want a cls. Cls is best. Also look into eductors. If you do some searches for eductors you'll find lots of good stuff.

[leveldrummer]

tanks guys!

[is_that_a_fish]

just get some more powerheads. but if you dont wanna have a lot of low flow power heads. sell the ones you dont need and buy a bigger one. for example: say you have 4 150gph power heads replace them with two 400 gph power heads...just my 2 cents...

[skeety]

CLS is definitely the way to go! If you're tanks acrylic you can drill the in/output tubes. If not, you can still do over the top.

IMO, it ends up looking WAY better than powerheads strewn all over the place.

here's some good info on CLS:

http://themantledmonster.thereeftank.com/cdiy.html

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22665

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22653

http://www.melevsreef.com/video/scwd.wmv

http://www.melevsreef.com/how_to_build.html

http://www.melevsreef.com/closedloop.html

[leveldrummer]

thanks skeety. very informative.