Optimum Water Turnover

[AudraMurphy]

I am trying to figure out what is the optimum water turnover rate should be for my 100 gallon reef tank. I currently have 2 Marineland Bio-Wheel 400 Power Filters, a Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer, and 2 Aqueon 950 Circulating Pumps.

The manufacturer information said the equipment I have in my aquarium has the following gph:

2 Marineland Filters = 400 gph
2 Aqueon Circulation Pumps = 950 gph
1 Fluval 405 Canister Filter = 340 gph
Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer = <295 gph (based on info found on internet)

Question 1: What is the optimum water turnover rate for my tank?
Question 2: How do I figure out the water turnover rate?

Thank you so much for your help!!

______________________________________
Current Tank Info

Current Livestock
Yellow Tang, Sailfin Tang, Scopas Tang, Yellowtail Damselfish, Lawnmower Blenny, Coral Beauty Angelfish, Ocellaris Clownfish (2), Clarkii Cownfish, Engineer Goby (2). Flowerpot Coral, Red Sponges (2), GBTA (4), Orange Sun Coral, Green Mushroom Corals (4), Pink Birdsnet Coral, Long Spine Sea Urchin (2), pincushion sea urchin, blue tuxedo sea urchin, and short spine sea urchin, about 75 snails/crabs, serpent sea star

Aquarium Equipment
Marineland Bio-Weel 400 Power Filters (2)
Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer
Aqueon 950 Circulating Pumps (2)
Marineland Heaters (2)
Lighting - Coralife Fluorescent Lights - 1 Actinic and 1 10K Bulb in each fixture (2)

[briankmarsh1980]

I would bump up your powerheads for sure that is not much flow

[BradMugs]

I think it would be great if someone would DEFINE turnover/flow. From what I've read it's not how much water you move from your sump to the tank but flow within the tank that counts. BUT I could be way off.

My take, you need enough flow to keep stuff from sitting on the corals, etc. Their intake and outtake is the same opening and it needs to be blown off. So for a fish only flow is different from reef and I've got to think rocks etc will all come into play.

So, experts some help here?

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by BradMugs

I think it would be great if someone would DEFINE turnover/flow. From what I've read it's not how much water you move from your sump to the tank but flow within the tank that counts. BUT I could be way off.

My take, you need enough flow to keep stuff from sitting on the corals, etc. Their intake and outtake is the same opening and it needs to be blown off. So for a fish only flow is different from reef and I've got to think rocks etc will all come into play.

So, experts some help here?

I don't claim to be an 'expert' but I have a fair amount of 'experience'.

Turnover in your tank is the total of all the GPH pumps and powerheads that affect the water movement in the DT (a pump pushing water thru a reactor in the sump doesn't count) divided by the number of gallons in the DT (not the total volume of water in your entire system). And you need to remember to take head loss into account. The pump in your sump may be a 900gph pump, but if it's pushing water up 7 feet over the back of your tank, your headloss (the pressure of that water pushing back down against the pump) may reduce you 'effective' GPH down from 900gph to only 500gph. I think there is a 'headloss' calculater on the RC Home page.

So lets say you have a 100g tank and a sump pump that after head loss is 500gph. And you have 3 900gph powerheads. That's 3200gph divided by 100g tank which equals a turnover of 32.

How much you want depends on what you have in the tank. Some corals don't like a lot of flow (say 10-20 turns) and some corals love flow (say 20-40 turns). The other issues that play into this is how well the flow is spread around the tank (avoid dead spots with little or no flow) and how 'random' the flow is. A big pump pushing 900gph directly at any coral isn't good. That's why there are so many ways to 'randomize' your water movement, SCWD, rotating powerheads, wave makers, closed loop systems like Ocean Motion and their Revolution heads

Hope that helps?

[daplatapus]

Nice description Ron. That's about the clearest I've seen it put in one post

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Nice description Ron. That's about the clearest I've seen it put in one post

Thank you, I try to give clear and full replies. Some of the one line answers almost leave one with more questions than answers. But as I said, I don't consider myself an expert, just experienced. And I'm better at build and plumbing than at corals and fish... but I'm getting better.

[BradMugs]

Fantastic....
Thanks

[RooKi3]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

I don't claim to be an 'expert' but I have a fair amount of 'experience'.

Turnover in your tank is the total of all the GPH pumps and powerheads that affect the water movement in the DT (a pump pushing water thru a reactor in the sump doesn't count) divided by the number of gallons in the DT (not the total volume of water in your entire system). And you need to remember to take head loss into account. The pump in your sump may be a 900gph pump, but if it's pushing water up 7 feet over the back of your tank, your headloss (the pressure of that water pushing back down against the pump) may reduce you 'effective' GPH down from 900gph to only 500gph. I think there is a 'headloss' calculater on the RC Home page.

So lets say you have a 100g tank and a sump pump that after head loss is 500gph. And you have 3 900gph powerheads. That's 3200gph divided by 100g tank which equals a turnover of 32.

How much you want depends on what you have in the tank. Some corals don't like a lot of flow (say 10-20 turns) and some corals love flow (say 20-40 turns). The other issues that play into this is how well the flow is spread around the tank (avoid dead spots with little or no flow) and how 'random' the flow is. A big pump pushing 900gph directly at any coral isn't good. That's why there are so many ways to 'randomize' your water movement, SCWD, rotating powerheads, wave makers, closed loop systems like Ocean Motion and their Revolution heads

Hope that helps?

Thank you for that explanation, I am a noob and was wondering about this as well.

[Rockhead21564]

Maybe it should be mentioned that turnover through your sump, if you have one, is recommended at 3-5 times DT. I prefer the lower end of that flow, more duration in the sump means better skimming,IMO. PS I like 40x flow for the DT, my 300g is going to be almost 13000 GPH flow- 43.5x, but the sump turnover is going to be 1200gph, 4x