125 SPS TURNOVER RATE
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ilovereefing <3
Active Member
My tank is a 4x2x2 125, so of course the Gyre is a bit too strong and would blow sand around. You may not have as much of a problem in a 6' tank. Right now, I have about 75x turnover rate in my tank (including sump equipment...I count that as well).
Akida17th
Well-Known Member
I've ran both and prefer Ecotech however on a 6' tank a gyre is going to move much more water than an MP40 will. So if you're housing SPS you may want to add a gyre 130 to supplement certain areas.
Harold Green
Well-Known Member
Return rate should be based on the tank drains. Two one inch around 1200gph so the sump pump should be sized for just under 1200ghp at the head height of the dt. The return can be adjusted to add or subtract to the in tank flow rate. My 210 has a wp 40 that moves water smoothly back and forth the length of the tank without stirring up the sand. I'm planning on replacing it with a wp 60 when it gives up on me. I think you're going to be caught between water flow blowing the fine sand around or keeping the flow down to a level that may allow algae to grow on and seal the sand up. You can keep the majority of the flow up higher in the tank but I've always had problems with fine sand sealing itself up. Good luck.
Myka
Valuable Member
A Gyre would be a reasonable substitution to adding more MP40s. It depends a bit on your planned rock structure though. I don't find Gyres work well in tanks with tall rock structures or with really well grown in tanks. Gyres really only gyre (ha!). Where something like a Tunze (my preference) or Vortech (meh) you can point towards certain areas better - like a break in the coral growth or a gap in the rocks. One of my client tanks that is 10' long has two Gyre 150's and each one will churn the whole tank (if only one is on). I wish they could be synced - they would be SO much better. I'm waiting for the next version of Gyre to come out - I think it will be better. If your tank is a standard 6' 125-gallon, then a Gyre might be a really good option because it will move a ton of water in such a narrow tank.
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Screwgunner
Valuable Member
Finnex brotherIs there a reason you posted this 3 times?
You will have a sandstorm with 100x turnover. Even with the comparatively coarse Caribsea Special Grade sand, positioning and cycles of powerheads have to be considered. When using powerheads that cycle on and off and ramp up and down though, it's not the same as being at 100x turnover constantly.
Is this a 6' 125? If so, I don't think those MP40's will cut it. You'll need at least one more, maybe two. On that topic, I also think it's rather silly to be using that giant return pump to push 14x turnover through the sump. You're going to blow skimmer bubbles into the display tank and irritate the corals. You should have anywhere in the 3-8x turnover range. I aim for 5-6x. So if you turn that Vectra down to the 900 gph you should have it at (assuming your sump is about 25 gallons of additional volume), which would give you about 6x turnover through the sump, then you're sitting at about 58x turnover in the display when both of the MP40s happen to be on at 100% (which won't be for long stretches). If this is a 4' tank this might be enough flow, but not in a 6' with SPS - especially once they start growing in.
Fwiw, I'd suggest you use two smaller heaters rather than one large heater. That 500w heater could cook the crap out of your tank if the thermostat fails. I cooked two tanks this way in the 90s, and now I always use two small heaters instead. Redundancy will save your behind long before fancy equipment will.
