Proper flow rate for tank size

[Mcgeezer]

Anyone have a general number or rule of thumb on how many gph your powerhead should be rated for in regards to tank size?

I have a Hydro Koralia 1150gph in my 70 gallon....is this too much? It is going to be a reef tank though so my initial thought is that it is plenty sufficient.

[nlgill13]

10x-20x your tank volume is normal

[Gagonzalez]

Depends on what your going to keep. If its a Mixed Reef, with both LPS and SPS then your going to be on the higher side of water circulation. I have a 28g Nano Mixed Reef and all my pumps combined provide about 1382gph. That works out to about 50x turnover rate per hr. I believe 15x-20x is considered minimum. 65x seems to be common place in a lot of SPS tanks. Somewhere in the middle is probably good depending on what you keep.

[thegrun]

Fish only: 20x
Fish and soft/easy to care for corals: 30x
Fish and SPS and other high slow corals: 40+x

[SGT_York]

Those numbers above are for a bare bottom tank, or very coarse sand, normal sand will be blown to dust with 40x turnover. 20 is a fine standard for most corals, it is too much for some and not enough for others.

[suzig]

if it were my tank i would have 3 powerheads of that size in the tank. flow is one of the best things for your tank, the water should always be moving. and its not about direct flow.. you dont want a powerhead to aim at the corals, you want all the powerheads to work together to get a nice current going.

[Mcgeezer]

My return pump puts out about 900 Gph and the powerhead is on other side, there's plenty of movement in my tank

[raybyrne67]

My 75g mixed reef is at 3600gph.

[dom418]

My return pump puts out about 900 Gph and the powerhead is on other side, there's plenty of movement in my tank

You should only turnover 5-10 times an hr through your sump in order for your skimmer to work best. Them another 10-20x's in your display using power heads. Controllable models work well for reef. Again it all depends on what you keep, but flow through the sump will not change.

[SGT_York]

You have plenty of flow for a good tank, look to eliminate any dead flow areas and add another powerhead if you plan on going with significant numbers of SPS corals but you are fine for sofites, LPS, and some good basic SPS with those flow numbers.