How much flow GPH would you recommend for a 20 gallon AIO cube?

[Surf City Corals]

Got my 20 gallon cube a couple months ago and have been messing with the flow to find a sweet spot. I have a mixed reef. I'm thinking I need one more small powerhead to crash into the other one so there is more turbulence in the flow.

 

[crabgrass]

You need to determine how much actual water to get gph. Shoot for 3-10x (some people say 5x) for your return. And 10-20xfrom your powerheads. Try to eliminate dead spots based on positioning of powerheads

So if you have 15 gallons of water, 75 from the return and 150-300 gph from the powerheads

 

[Surf City Corals]

You need to determine how much actual water to get gph. Shoot for 3-10 (some people say 5%) for your return. And 10-20% from your powerheads. Try to eliminate dead spots based on positioning of powerheads

ok. when you say you need to determine how much water what do you mean? It's a 20 gallon cube with a 1,320 gallon per hour powerhead and the aquajapan AIO return pump.

 

[crabgrass]

ok. when you say you need to determine how much water what do you mean? It's a 20 gallon cube with a 1,320 gallon per hour powerhead and the aquajapan AIO return pump.

How much water in actually in the tank? I assume you have some rock, sand, some equipment in the water and water level is not up to the glass

 

[Surf City Corals]

How much water in actually in the tank? I assume you have some rock, sand, some equipment in the water and water level is not up to the glass

Yes I do have some rock 3, moderately sized pieces, and sand bottom about an inch deep and 8 assorted frags. Water level is fairly close to the top. I would say approximately 17 gallons. How much GPH would you recommend? Thanks for your help.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

ok. when you say you need to determine how much water what do you mean? It's a 20 gallon cube with a 1,320 gallon per hour powerhead and the aquajapan AIO return pump.

That sounds like plenty to me. 1300 gph divided by 20 gallons is 65x turnover, which is a high rate of turnover in most tanks.

If you wanted 20x turnover, then 20 multiply by 20 gallons, so would need 400 gph for 20x turnover. Thats how you calculate.

My softie tank runs at about 30x turnover, my main tank runs at about 60x turnover, my seahorse tank is at 20x turnover, just to give you examples.

 

[Surf City Corals]

That sounds like plenty to me. 1300 gph divided by 20 gallons is 65x turnover, which is a high rate of turnover in most tanks.

If you wanted 20x turnover, then 20 multiply by 20 gallons, so would need 400 gph for 20x turnover. Thats how you calculate.

My softie tank runs at about 30x turnover, my main tank runs at about 60x turnover, my seahorse tank is at 20x turnover, just to give you examples.

Okay that makes sense based on the volume. Thank you! I appreciate the examples too!

 

[crabgrass]

If your powerhead is adjuatable speed, you could drop it down (a lot), get a second and increase coverage for your tank if that is the concern. At 100% , it’s going to be a lot of flow for any livestock in the tank