Sump/display turnover rate

It's not so much about getting the water cleaner as it is about lowering heat, electricity and noise. If 1x works equally as good as 4-10x.. then why buy and use pumps that pull all that extra electricity, cost and add that extra heat and noise?

I have never heard of ANYONE using less than 3times there display volume as return to there sump. I know I have never dared lol. Anyone have any substantial evidence that 3x turnover or more is helping in any way or to the contrary that running lower would hurt?

 

Yes, I know about this well. the turnover in the sump and water depth must carefully fall within the parameters established by the skimmer manufacturer. You can further call them for optimum rate and depth.
The skimmer will not perform properly otherwise.
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This is the way it is like it or not.

 

Water depth, yes. Turnover, no. There is a too much, but no too little, well until you get to none... Don't forget the pump on the skimmer is separate of this figure.

 

Great post. There are skimmers designed for high flow rate and others for low flow rate. The manufacturer should recommend the size aquaium, flow rate and sump skimmer reservoir depth. Many manufacturers specs are misleading, inaccurate and unknowing. I like your opinion regarding less flow is better, however, don't forget the skimmer has a voluminous job to do (flow by rate should fall within the high-low parameters.) The sump flow rate is tethered to the skimmer pump and skimmer dynamics.

Therefore I submitt water depth -YES, Flow Rate and turnover -YES, your post -GOOD.:thinking2

 

I actually decided a while back to ask some questions about this. When noone had a good answer, I decided to run my last two tanks with significantly less flow from sump to return (my display tank flow is crazy and I love it).

My goal was to:

1. Keep more particulate food in the tank and in suspension before the skimmer gets it.
2. Keep the noise down.
3. Increase my ability to control the flow in the display tank.
4. Increase the chance free floating organisms have to settle in the display before they get "filtered."

I've done a lot wrong in this hobby, and I'm not going to represent myself as an expert, but in this regard, the reduced return flow has worked out brilliantly.

 

I agree with and feel strongly about all your points. I have a 90 tank. I like to run the min spec of 90m gal/hr return rate. When top tank circulation needs help I run the sump to the max (300 gl/hr.)
Today I stumbled across on the Tunze website a skimmer that does not filter plankton! Worth a look. I didn't have time to look at it yet myself.

With skimmers and flow wider and slower is better. However, don't forget, some skimmers and sump are designed for very high volumes and some like this better.

 

I run about 10X my sump's volume through the sump. 5 to 10 times the sumps volume is all that is necessary. It allows longer dwell time so your skimmer can be more efficient.

 

I had never thought about it in terms of Sump volume... Measurement in those terms does make more sense than in the DT volume!!

So are you running about 400gph on your 75 gal tank with a 40 gallon sump? (I guess the actual water volume of the sump would be even better measurement)

I only have a 40b sump myself on my 210... I may even have room to downgrade my return.. or I could T off my reactors, my algae scrubber and possibly even my skimmer off my return pump. That will greatly reduce my noise, electricity and heat.

 

I would have to say here, that if your skimmer were to hypothetically filter out all of the proteins in your sump tank in, say, one minute, and all your other filters down there did the same, and that potentially all the water returning to your DT were completely filtered, and your return pump pushed up exactly the amount your sump volume is each minute, you would have a pretty balanced flow rate.
----I.E. If my sump were 10g, and my filter system had a turn over rate of 10g per hour, and my return pump pushed up exactly the same, that would be balanced.

That would be all very possibly, I feel, if all the water that passed through our sump were filtered 100%. But most of the filter sysems out there aren't this effective. I believe most people that want high turn over rates do so because the more times you run it through the filter process the cleaner the water becomes. That would explain 20x tank volume rates I've read about. Quite possibly the idea would work just effectively if you were to lower the return rate, from DT to Sump, and increase the amount of times your sump were to turn over just by itself.

 

My sentiments exactly.