Flow inside VS filtration

StevenBell · Sep 24, 2013

Been on my find since I watched a video a couple of days ago. Some people love to run water as fast as they can through they're filter, some turning over the tanks volume x10 per hour which can provide most of the flow for a stony coral. While it seems others slow down that flow through the filter to give the water more contact time with media (GFO, Skimmer, Bio balls, fuge or whatever they may have under the hood) and in return run power heads inside the display that turn the tanks volume over x10 an hour for they're flow. What in your opinion works best? What do you run? What are your thoughts?

Flatbrook · Sep 24, 2013

I run a cascade 900 in my 55 gal mixed because I don't have room for a sump at this time. It has worked ok for me, but plan on adding a sump as soon as I have room. It is rated at 900gph, but I can guarantee you that it is under half it's rating. Works ok for catching ditrus floating in the water column. I also run 2 hydor 1200s on a wave maker more or less for water movement. As time goes on, even those lose power with the buildup of coralline. I know in a sump setup water movement is steady. Too fast and it wouldnt have time to filter.

Pappy · Sep 24, 2013

I run a mag 9.5 on my 120 with 2 mp 40's. I am a fan of slower through the sump=better filtration. Just makes sense.

Flatbrook · Sep 24, 2013

Pappy said:
I run a mag 9.5 on my 120 with 2 mp 40's. I am a fan of slower through the sump=better filtration. Just makes sense.

+1 on slower flow through sump.

Ron Reefman · Sep 25, 2013

I run about a 20x flow past the skimmer and a couple of filter socks and 10x past the refugium and 5x past the DSB. The sump/fuge/DSB is a 150g system. That's a 2000gph return from the sump. I have a 2000gph flow through an Ocean Motion OM4 Closed Loop and I have 2 WP25 wave makers in the tank. So the 180g DT has a total 'flow' of a little under 40x.

AZDesertRat · Sep 25, 2013

Im at about 7-8x the display volume through my sump with maybe 5% of that through my refugium and the rest of the 50+x turnover comes from powerheads in the display.