Water flow question

[slacknation]

I was wondering how to tell what my water flow is. I have a 12gal that came with hood and filter system. How can I tell if I have low or medium flow. I am pretty sure I would be able to tell if it was high flow. I wuold like to get some of the low light stuff, but now not sure if my flow is good enough for them.

 

[chadman]

to determine your turnover rate you must add up the gallons per hour(gph) of all the pumps in your tanks(powerheads,filters,skimmers,etc) then you divide that total number by the number of gallons of your tank...

 

[old rookie]

So what is the turnover rate suppose to be

 

[slacknation]

So the manual says it has 150gph and it's a 12g tank, so divided I get 12.5? Is that low or medium flow?

 

[sigmachris]

For corals I have heard the vets say 15X per hour minimum with 20X per hour optimum.

 

[chadman]

yeah i have at least 20x turnover rate in all my tanks

 

[zj4play]

So...I have a Rio 800, does that number mean its actually putting out 800 gph? Or is it less?

 

[sigmachris]

Originally Posted by zj4play
So...I have a Rio 800, does that number mean its actually putting out 800 gph? Or is it less?
LESS...the 800 is the companies SKU or trade name. I just bought the 800 this Saturday and it is rated at 212 gph.

 

[zj4play]

Sweet! That is good to know. That means that my stock pump is getting 243 gph and the Rio is getting 212 = 455/29 gallons = 15.6 which would be my turnover rate. Cool

 

[sigmachris]

Originally Posted by zj4play
Sweet! That is good to know. That means that my stock pump is getting 243 gph and the Rio is getting 212 = 455/29 gallons = 15.6 which would be my turnover rate. Cool

Your turnover is probably higher than that as BioCubes don't really contain a true 29 or 14 gallons. My 14G is closer to 12 and I think I read the 29G is closer to 26. Either way it sounds like you are good to go with flow.

 

[zj4play]

Oh yea, I forgot about that. I read somewhere in here that the 29 is closer to 24 gallons. Oh well