What is the general rule of thumb for amount of flow?

[JUMBO]

I know it varies on what will be kept in the tank but I am setting up my new 60 gallon long in 2-3 months. All I have is some lps, xenia, zoas, and shrooms + 6 fish. I wanted to know a range of how many gallons per hour should be going in this tank.

Also any good places to buy cheap pumps online?

Thanks for any help.

JUMBO

[JUMBO]

Bump?

[reepher]

I have seen peopel say 4-5 times a hour (turnover) to 50 times an hour for the SPS tanks. You could get by with 8- 10 probably. Can somebody sanity check this?

[pbs911]

IMHO, flow is only as good as the dead spot in the tank. The goal is not only to create a healthy condition for the corals, but also to keep the detrius in the water column to allow it to be taken into the sump and skimmer. So 20x turn over is not as good as 10X turn over if the latter is better able to rid the tank of detrius. If you are talking SPS, it's a different story all together.

[mortenN]

IMO, 10x watermovement in your setup is ok.

If you later turn over to SPS you must have much more movement, maybe 20x-30x.
I use 54x in my SPS/ fish only tank, but my tank is a test, the SPS will also be happy in 30x tankvolume.

[JUMBO]

Thank you guys, I really appriciate the help. I am thinking of getting into SPS later on so I will need to upgrade to more flow.

One more question for you. I wanted to know what kind of pumps anyone has had great experiences with.

[johnnstacy]

I guess I am lost. I am setting up a 150g and plan on having SPS. My overflows are rated at 600gph ea and it was recommended that I go with an Iwaki 70RLT which is rated at 1500gph at 5' head. Based on what you have said, for SPS, I will need to push something like 4500 gph. How will I achieve this with my limit on the overflows?

[urnmyway]

when you all say turnover are you meaning through the sump. example 100 gal tank means turnover at 30x would be 3000 gph coming back out of sump returning to main tank OR are you meaning flow inside of the tank; example 100 gal tank at 30x would be 3000 gph with powerheads (tunze, seio, MJ's etc) plus return(s) from sump.

[burton14e7]

I have 8x turn over and 24x's more flow inside the tank. I did notice a difference in my tank when I added another 600gph seio, not much flow but less dead spots and more random. I have a 55 gallon, so I think you would be legit on a mag7 in the sump and either a closed loop or powerheads for flow in the tank.

[burton14e7]

Oh yeah, the mag7 is pushing around 450gph at 4 feet of head, so thats 7.5 turn over....just enough to get a cheap ph to hit the 10x mark

[mortenN]

IMO, the best pumps for SPS is Tunze stream 6000 or 6100.
They are adjustable so you can downgrade when you have LPS and softcoral and upgrade the flow to SPS later.

[pbs911]

when you all say turnover are you meaning through the sump. exam

No, just total water movement. For example, say a Stream puts out 3000 gph. The overflow and return pump put 1000 gpm through the sump. You total turn over is 4000 gph. On a 100 gal tank your turn over rate would be 40x. Unless you have a skimmer that can handle the high turn over rate I don't see a need to push that much water throug hthe sump. I run about 9-10x through the sump and use the stream for the rest to get to about 30x.

[Cesar357]

Im setting up a 60 gallon as well, do you think that 1200 to 1800 gph would be sufficient? I will be running some SPS in that 60.

[Entropy]

Originally posted by Cesar357
Im setting up a 60 gallon as well, do you think that 1200 to 1800 gph would be sufficient? I will be running some SPS in that 60.

It should be fine as long as it is even flow and not 1200gph coming out of one pipe pointing in one direction.

[Cesar357]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself right. I will be seting up a 60 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. The 60 gallon will be drilled. It will have 2 holes for draining to sump and 2 returns from sump. So do you think that 1800 pgh wont be too much for that 20 gallon sump? That's actually what I was trying to say, hahaha.