Tank turnover calc

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jim barry

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2006
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Sorry stupid question BUT, when calculating the turnover per hour of a tank i assume you have to take into account the water in the sump?
Its just that if i add the sump volume to the calc it makes a big difference to the size pumps i have to use in order to get x10 turn over per hour for the rays.
 
I've always heard it is total system volume so include sump. And the calculation is the gph of the pump divided by the tank volume in gallons. So a 40 gallon system with a filter at 360 gph is a 9x turnover rate.


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Total water volume needs to be taken into account plus you need to factor in head pressure which is not just the high the pump has to push but the pressure it takes to push the water through 90's and straight pipe. You could easily buy a 2400 gph pump but only get 1000 gph out of it because of the head on the pump so pipe size, elbows, and height all factor in.
 
It's almost pointless to try to figure out. It ends up an argument. Factor in contact time with media and all of a sudden if you're running 30 times turnover with very quick contact time you may be able to achieve the same result with 8X turnover and longer contact time with the bio.

Seems the norm these days with rays is running a bio reactor which usually runs off a seperate slower flowing loop that splits off from the sump and drains back into it. If you contact the people that develop or work with this type of media they tell you longer contact time (slower flowrate) is ideal for this type of media.

It's easy to replace the water movement with korilia type pumps that do several thousand gallons an hour on like 30 watts as opposed to giant pumps that devour amps instead of watts.

Bottom line- do what floats your boat. Study, build, and improve if you think it's not working. Every situations different and it's hard to argue points about things most of us don't truley understand enough to argue about anyways.

Electricity isn't going to get cheaper. I'd keep that in mind when looking at turnover rates. If you can achieve the same result in the end without having a $400 a month electric bill then that's the important thing.

I seriously probobly quadrupled the GPH being ran at my place for less money per month by simple replacing pumps. When shopping for them the first thing you should look at is the electricity label vs flow ratings then the pricetag cause if not paying attention it's easy to get burnt by cheap pumps.
 
It's almost pointless to try to figure out. It ends up an argument. Factor in contact time with media and all of a sudden if you're running 30 times turnover with very quick contact time you may be able to achieve the same result with 8X turnover and longer contact time with the bio.

Seems the norm these days with rays is running a bio reactor which usually runs off a seperate slower flowing loop that splits off from the sump and drains back into it. If you contact the people that develop or work with this type of media they tell you longer contact time (slower flowrate) is ideal for this type of media.

It's easy to replace the water movement with korilia type pumps that do several thousand gallons an hour on like 30 watts as opposed to giant pumps that devour amps instead of watts.

Bottom line- do what floats your boat. Study, build, and improve if you think it's not working. Every situations different and it's hard to argue points about things most of us don't truley understand enough to argue about anyways.

Electricity isn't going to get cheaper. I'd keep that in mind when looking at turnover rates. If you can achieve the same result in the end without having a $400 a month electric bill then that's the important thing.

I seriously probobly quadrupled the GPH being ran at my place for less money per month by simple replacing pumps. When shopping for them the first thing you should look at is the electricity label vs flow ratings then the pricetag cause if not paying attention it's easy to get burnt by cheap pumps.

Good read! Learned alot

#1 S. Vettel
 
It's almost pointless to try to figure out. It ends up an argument. Factor in contact time with media and all of a sudden if you're running 30 times turnover with very quick contact time you may be able to achieve the same result with 8X turnover and longer contact time with the bio.

Seems the norm these days with rays is running a bio reactor which usually runs off a seperate slower flowing loop that splits off from the sump and drains back into it. If you contact the people that develop or work with this type of media they tell you longer contact time (slower flowrate) is ideal for this type of media.

It's easy to replace the water movement with korilia type pumps that do several thousand gallons an hour on like 30 watts as opposed to giant pumps that devour amps instead of watts.

Bottom line- do what floats your boat. Study, build, and improve if you think it's not working. Every situations different and it's hard to argue points about things most of us don't truley understand enough to argue about anyways.

Electricity isn't going to get cheaper. I'd keep that in mind when looking at turnover rates. If you can achieve the same result in the end without having a $400 a month electric bill then that's the important thing.

I seriously probobly quadrupled the GPH being ran at my place for less money per month by simple replacing pumps. When shopping for them the first thing you should look at is the electricity label vs flow ratings then the pricetag cause if not paying attention it's easy to get burnt by cheap pumps.

Which pumps/canister filters are you running that you recommend for high efficiency?

What about the Fluval FX-5? I have read a few comments that have recommended that canister filter for those reasons. Just looking for opinions!
 
Forget factor this and that

Go for a total tank turnover of about 10 x per hour

Is you start trying to work out sump volume it's crazy as the sump is full of media

Any good pump should tell you the pump output at different head heights
You will lose a few 1000s gph

No need for it to be exactly 10 x per hour or 11 x per hour

Just go for around 10 x per hour then if it's only 8 x per hour it's not the end of the world

No need to make fishkeeping so confusing just keep it simple


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I read the manufactures papers on my powerbead 85 filter (mainly for koi keeping). And in that paper it says 10-12 times A DAY. Not an houre. I turn my 1300 gallon system over 5 times an houre. Works like a charm. Its not even possible to put more flow through the PB85 as i would have had media all over the place. This filter is manufactured to keep up with a 10 000 liter heavy stocked koi pond, with 500 grams of feeding a day.. And a 20 000 liter pond with normal stocking.

I push 12000l\h through it, probably 10 when you take all bends and albows into account. But as said, 10-12 times a day.

Maybe these filters are a total different story tika?

NEW_Powerbead_Filter.jpg
 
I run 3 pumps one states 30,000 lph and can still push water 8.5 meter
The other 2 are 18,000 lph but can only push water 4.5 meter so I have a T to split the 30,000 lph pump to the 2 far return pipes
Then one 18,000 lph to my sand filter the good thing with my sand filter is it has it's own T built in so you only divert the flow you need to move the sand other sand filters you need to slow the flow down or you get loads of sand pumped back in the main tank
The other 18,000 lph pump runs the 4 x 25w UVs then back into the main tank

I never add the sump volume to the size of my tank if I did I would also have 1250 gal

The more turnover the better as it will air the sump better

I have 4 x 2inch drains in my tank and it copes with that turn over easy

I did run 4 x eheim compact 5000 lph at 1st and it was rubbish and the sump got full of sludge


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