Water flow in tank?

Just wondering approx what is the water flow supposed to be in relation to your tank? Not the circulators in the tank but through the wet dry pumping into the tank. I was told the 2 mag 5 pumps I had were more then enough but they put about 300 gph with the ammount of hose on them. I am starting to think this is way to little for the filter and thinking of going to the 18 whick will put out about 1200 gph on my tank. Tank is 220 any thoughts its tough finding a good lfs with answers here. This is the setup they sold me and I was just told today by a fellow at the lfs it was way to small.

 

Don't really know what the rule of thumb is but I have 2 HammerHead 5,800 gph that run my tank. One is on a Ocean Motion valve and the other runs the returns from the sump and all my reactors.

 

I always try to filter my water 10 times/hour, so if i were you, I'd try to get around 2200gph.

 

Yup, 10x turnover is what you are aiming for. I am setting up the rest of my plumbing this weekend and will be running a Mag 9.5 and a Rio 2100+ as my return pumps. So I figure I am doing about 1000GPH. Give or take.

 

dumb question but will I need pumps to return water too? How do I get that much water through my wet dry filter? I dont mean to sound dumb but will my pro clear 300 handle the water flow? I would like to order the new pump but if the filter cant handle it IDK?

 

You want about 5x threw your sump and the rest using other pumps. SPS is usually 30X min, Softies 10X min. Main thing is you want to try and get some flow to every corner of the tank is you can. Having much higher than around 5X thew a sum and you start to have problems with micro bubbles and noise.

 

The way most of us have it setup with a pump(s) pushing water from the sump up to the main tank. Inside the main tank you should have an overflow box which dumps water back down to the sump. And so the cycle repeats itself as long as your pump is on. Inside the overflow box you should have one or more pvc pipe(s) which drain the water down to the sump. In my 90 gallons I have two one inch PVC pipes inside the overflow box which drain water down to the sump. In your case it should be 4 pipes or more for safety redundancy (just in case one or more clogs); less if they are of bigger diameter. Personally I've opted for the Iwaki's external 500gph pump low heat exchange, quiet in operation and durable. This translates in a lower turn over per hour than what's popular recommended in the reef hobby but it works for me. However, the main tank's water is fairly well supplemented with two 850gph powerheads. Your options could include one large pump or several smaller pumps pushing water up to your main tank. Hope this helps you get on the roll

 

this all depends on your skimmer. I try to shoot for 3 to 5 times tank volume through the sump. I like for all of the water in the tank go get skimmed and i'm not returning so much dirty water to my display.