View Single Post
  #124  
Old 12/18/2007, 09:03 PM
hahnmeister hahnmeister is offline
El Jefe de WRS
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Brew City, WI
Posts: 8,639
Quote:
Originally posted by spazz
if you wanted to have cheap flow behind the rock work you might consider the 6000 tunzes. there cheap and dont require the controller. you can turn them on(using a timer) for 6 hrs in the morning and 6 hrs in the evening. this would be like high tide in the morning and evening.
these would go great with the 6201's
you dont need alot of flow through the sump. 2500gph would be just fine to the sump. its enough to get the desolved oganics to the skimmer and then on to the sump. if you build a skimmer make sure its big enough to handle all the water comming out of the overflow box. that way all the water is skimmed all the time. you get the best skimming that way.
energy has about 2500 gph going to his skimmer and his tanks is alot bigger than your tank will be. the key is the size of the skimmer and its ability to skim all that water effeciently. your skimmer should hold between 5-8% of your total system volume. so if you have a 1200g tank and a 300g sump your skimmer would have to hold between 70 to 120 gallons.

the 8 luminarc reflectors will be fine for that tank with 400w bulbs. 400watters are good to 4 ft deep. the 14 k bulbs are a good place to start. they give you the best of both worlds and a fairly good par rating.
In general, I agree with you, but there is more than one way to skin the skimming cat. I dont think having to hold 5-8% of the system volume is a statistic that is needed. As it turns out, yes, for a 120 second dwell time in a skimmer that is fed 1.5-2x the system volume per hour, that does mean about a 6-7% volume, but there are other ways. Id say that the air throughput of the skimmer can modify that 'ideal' a bit, and in the case of your Volcano or other Dart driven needlewheels, alot of the space is due to the water output (resulting in turbulence) the the Dart makes. If it wasnt for all the water turbulence that the dart makes, the Volcano could be 12" diameter rather than 18"... and I dont think that would make it any less effective despite being 1/2 the volume, right? A Laguna 2400 threadwheel making just as much air, but only moving 1/2 the water for instance...

Not trying to argue, but I think a 70-120g capacity skimmer is a bit overkill (although very Volcano).
__________________
"If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it"
-Al Einstein