flow rate through sump?

Pictures? What is in your main tank?

Are you going to have it heavily stocked?

General rule of thumb is 10x turnover per hour. Usually 5-8x per hour is good enough to have adequate circulation in the display.

It all depends what size your drains are. Most people are limited to what's factory drilled in a reef ready tank. On a larger custom tank you probably have more options for a higher flow

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What mudbuttjones said. I was just trying to get a little more info to see weather you needed higher or lower end of the turn over rate. Makes a difference for cost

You're not necessarily going to have better bio filtration by turning a huge amount of water through the sump - the faster it moves through there the less time it spends contacting your bio media... but there's more water. .. it's really kind of a horse a piece. Slower flows work more efficiently. But it doesn't really matter much imo.


The only thing to gain by a high turnover rate is better circulation and better mechanical filtration/water polishing.

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In Germany the most peoples are saying 2 max 3 x turnover per hour trough your sump because the bakterias can do their work better with slow flow.
In my sump 10x turnover would be a pump with 14000 liter per hour.
Some people are using this for a pond.
I think it would be totaly oversized.
2-4 times per hour turnover and you are fine.
If your tank is to long and the current is not strong enough use powerheads.

Really that is interesting I should try that in a tank, I have a few power heads sitting around that i dont use. I was to the understanding turn over rate was more important

The powerheads are only necessary in very big tanks that you have good water movement and no dead spots.
With the turnover rate i posted you should be fine especially in terms of bio filtration.
You will save alot of money because pumps with more power are expensive and you have a very high wattage.
I builded a sump next to my tank at the same high.
You lose no pump power and nothing can go wrong with the water coming over the edge of the sump.
I have two pipes with 5 cm diameter as overflow and a pump with 6000 liter per hour for the return pipe.
When i would use a bigger pump i definatly have to use bigger pipes for the overflow.
I have the new jabeo dct 6000 great pump and low wattage.