Turnover rates of equipment

[fishhugger]

Something crossed my mind while driving home, kind of left me dumbfounded...and I wasn't sure if I am the first one to have considered this, or if I just have a misunderstanding of whats happening.
Now if you have a sump with a return pump going at 600gph, would you add the water draining at 600gph to it to give you a total of 1200gph of movement?
Then I thought well, if you compare a whole sump setup to a koralia, which I wasnt sure where I was going with that thought, but it led to another thought. If a koralia is rated at 600gph, does that mean its only putting out 300gph, but also taking in 300gph for a total of 600? Either way, water is moving from both sides of the device, if you were to place your koralia towards the surface of the water face down, you should still be able to see ripples at the surface where water is getting sucked in....so I would think.
Or is the 600gph koralia actually inputing and outputting 600gph each, for a total of 1200gph of water movement.
Maybe I am over complicating the idea of powerheads and turnover rates, but regardless, both the input and output of a sump is going to break surface tension of the water in your direct tank, allowing for more O2 exchange, and if they are both at the same rate, I cant imagine either the input or output having any more or less of rthe an effect on the exchange as each other.
Thoughts, opinions?
Personally I think I am just overcomplicating the subject, but am curious as to what anyone else thinks.

 

[acrylic51]

I'm confused!!!! What does ripples on the water surface mean? Honestly just because I see ripples doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Doesn't mean it's more effective or not. Your turnover rate is what your pump is turning over. If you would put a flow meter on your drain line, an a flow meter on your return you would see what's moving, but your after turning your "tank" volume over. Your over flow IMHO isn't figured into your total gallonage or turnover rate.

 

[jstdv8]

I think he is talking about surface aggitiation in realtion to releasing CO2 and allowing O2 in.

 

[acrylic51]

In my mind you have plenty of O2 exchange though the overflow and sump. In a goo setup with adequate in tank flow I see no real need to aim/point PH's or what not at the surface for agitation.

 

[jstdv8]

I always wondered that too, but i've had great luck with making sure i get as much aggitation as possible ans still get decent flow on the substrate. And I'm running a sump with a turf scrubber.
the reason i think it might help is that i recently ,oved my PHs down a bit and it gave considerably less waves on the surface and my PH went from 8.3 to 8.0-8.1 about the same time. And you can see the little debris on the surface of the water if you look up at the water surface from the face of the tank.
I dunno, just the way i do it.