Aquarium Sump Flow rate ideas?

[IanTan]

Hi guys,

I'm new here but not to fishkeeping, I used to keep marines but due to spending too much time away it's not a practical option.

I have a spare 60cm cube tank, roughly 160 litres with roughly a 60 Lt sump. I plan on creating a sort of island layout with non aquatic plants in the centre of the island for both decoration and to aid the filtration.

The tank has a split two pipe return system, what would you suggests as a turnover rate? For marines I would use between 5 and 10 times volume but that seems high for a planted aquarium to me.

I still have my marine computer system so it will take care of automatic water changes and dosing if I'm away.

My guess is about 3 times the volume once I take into account the pump loss due to the head height.

Any advice as to a nice quiet pump would also be appreciated.

[LookoutTrout]

I'm in the process of setting up something similar so I'm interested but don't have the answer.
I'm using an AC pond pump that I guess turns over twice an hour after losses, I'll measure it with the next water change. I can't think of any reason it needs to be more as long as it can process the waste properly.

[SPACKlick]

Heavily planted you want 10x turnover to make sure CO2 and nutrients are well distributed. Lightly planted heavily stocked is about 5x. Sadly I can't advise on pumps.

[LookoutTrout]

Heavily planted you want 10x turnover to make sure CO2 and nutrients are well distributed. Lightly planted heavily stocked is about 5x. Sadly I can't advise on pumps.

If I find the plants are causing dead spots then I'll add a wavemaker, I'll know more when the plants have grown a bit.

[IanTan]

I personally think 10 x is overkill, I used less on reef tanks where I wanted waves and surge, as LookoutTrout says I can add wave makers if required, I have a number of Ecotech's sitting in a cupboard.

As I mentioned I'm looking at an island setup which means I'll have open space all around so I'm still thinking I'll base my ideal turnover on around 3 x volume. Which in reality once the height etc is taken into account it may actually be a 2,000lt pump and 10x volume but in reality I'll never achieve that.

I was looking at the TMC Reef pump, seems good value but I'll need to look at long term reliability.

[fr499y]

TMC reef pumps are brilliant these days. I’ve been running the 1000 model one on my 60cm sumped setup (which is about 55L display as it’s shallow and 25L sump) and even set to 08 on the controller, it’s more than enough for mine. Oh and the speed goes up to 20, which is more than enough for a 100L setup. You could even go to the 2000 model and have a bit more wiggle room.

Back when I kept marines I would suggest anything other than TMC if it had a plug but these reef pumps are certainly up there with the more expensive makes.

[Lo1]

Aquamedic DC RUNNER 3.3 – 24 V UP TO 3000 L/H would work well for you:

[LookoutTrout]

Aside from cost I noticed a problem with going with a bigger than necessary DC pump, the controls don't change so the steps between settings get bigger.

[Lo1]

The dc runners can be increased or decreased by steps of 1%. It is recommended not to run them under 60%. Like any motor have some redundancy with the power, means you do not run the guts out of the motor.

[Lo1]

The total volume of water is 220l if you want to run your system at x10, you are at 2200l. You will lose a little l/h running back through the return tube. Leaving enough room not to have the pump flat out.