which flow rates are better for tank and sump??

[hlama]

ok this is what i have

72X18X20 main tank
48X12X18 sump.

3-maxijet 900's (230gph ea.) on wave maker.
1-tunze streamer pump with controller (alternating 1/2 power-3/4 power) rated at 1850pgh max power.
ASM g3 skimmer in sump, uses a 500gph needle wheel pump.

for the return pump and flow through sump/refugium i have a few pumps handy, all sedras. a 1200pgh, 700gph and a 500gph. will have LR and cheato in the fuge. so which return pump do you think i should go with??

[Danfish]

Go with about 3-5x flow from the sump to the display.

I used to have 10x flow and droped down to 4x and everything started working better. Skimmer made more gunk, microbubble issue I was fighting went away, I could remove alot of filter material I was using to stop the bubbles. My nitrates droped.


I wouldn't try to over do the flow.
How fast exactly would depend on size of the sump and size of the total volume of the system.

Thats my 2 cents anyways :)

[Craig Lambert]

No reason to have more than 5X flow through the sump when you're using powerheads in the tank.

[hlama]

yeah thats what i was thinking. only thing is the perfect pump would be a 900gph. but nooo i only have 1200 and 700. well i will go with the 700 thanks guys. lates

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.php

[rustybucket145]

I would go with the 1200 and use the 700 for a closed loop. Remember to factor in Head Loss. So actually by the time you factor that in you might be somewhere around 900gph.