What's my max flow?

[SeymourDuncan]

I have an aquarium I put together.
The tank is a standard 20g tall with one hole drilled for the drain.

The overflow box is glued over the hole and is 6 in wide and 2 inches front to back at 5 inches deep.

The bulkhead is a 1 inch slip and has one elbow that comes out of it.

And that leads down to the 2nd elbow at the sump:

This just shoots onto the trickle filters lid and rains down. No sponges or anything.

The pump has Model 2 utility pump and no mfg lol so I'm estimating 2-300 gph Max. If I can go higher i will.

So the overflow is
1 inch PVC with 2x90 degree elbows and a 2ft drop

Any help would be awesome! Thanks, sorry Im not a grade a physicist lol.

 

[mike007]

How are the corals doing with the flow you have now? If you get too much it will stir your sandbed up and some corals do not like a lot of flow. I think what you have now is suffient.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

Bare bottom actually. Lps are huge but my sea whip is an algae trap. Not much sway

 

[MarineDepot]

Hi SeymourDuncan,

As a general starting point for a reef tank, I would say aim for around 3-5 times turnover. On your 20 gallon aquarium, 5 times would be 100 gph and that would suffice for mixed reef coral and for providing water for your protein skimmer/filtration system. Some people like to go up to 10x turnover for SPS aquariums, which sounds like you're close to or above. I hope this helps.

Chris R.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

What I have now is too slow IMO or I wouldn't be curious about upsizing. I got the empty tank and pump used from someone who had bad "luck" with the hobby. I'm assuming it was because the pump was too slow.


Now in my 90g reef I have the megaflow. Stand pipe at max capacity. 700gph roughly. Plus I have a 1500gph power head and 2 more 900gph ones and that's just right.

No sps at all. If I got any I'd upgrade the powerheads.

I really would like more flow through the overflow, and so would the sea whip

 

[MarineDepot]

If you're looking for more flow in the aquarium you can do so with power heads to create turbulence. Increasing just the return pump flow can only do so much. If the flow through your filter system is too fast, this actually reduces the contact time with your devices like protein skimmers which is counter productive. I hope this helps.

Chris R.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

I only do water changes in weekly and have great success as far as parameters. My sump has one chunk of live rock and a sponge I clean every day or 2 depending on feeding.

The sump is mainly just for extra volume and equipment housing. If I can up the flow and not use powerheads that would be ideal.

The tanks too small for them anyways without clogging up my view

 

[SeymourDuncan]

No skimmer, I usually only use one on 40 and up or If I have a lot of fish. I only have 2 clowns in the 20