have a 150 gal and I built a 1.5 inch PVC overflow Towards the left side of the tank with a rubbermaid sump and a pump that pushes 500 gpr. I also have a penguin 1140 internal powerhead setup in the right side of the tank. Do you think this is good enough filtration for a 150? Putting my aro in there.
Filtration for a 150
- Thread starter Hawaiianfishkee
- Start date
well, pump is ground level and the top of the tank is about 4 feet from that. the pump is set about half power right now.cypher1024;3418500; said:
IMO no that is not nearly enough flow (gph).
Your pump is rated at 500gph and with 4-5' of head height you will be lucky to get 400gph out of that pump.
So 400gph divided by tank volume 150g = 2.6 turn overs per hour.
In a recent poll we found out that most MFKers liked around 6 turn overs per hour on there sump systems.
So if I were you i would upgrade to a pump with around 1100gph or a little more to compensate for head height. You need 900gph at the tank to hit that target number.
For me I have a 1325gph pump running on my 125g. And thats around 10 turn overs per hour and if i were to do it again I would get a bigger pump. Even with 10x turn overs i still get alot of debris on the tank floor.
Your pump is rated at 500gph and with 4-5' of head height you will be lucky to get 400gph out of that pump.
So 400gph divided by tank volume 150g = 2.6 turn overs per hour.
In a recent poll we found out that most MFKers liked around 6 turn overs per hour on there sump systems.
So if I were you i would upgrade to a pump with around 1100gph or a little more to compensate for head height. You need 900gph at the tank to hit that target number.
For me I have a 1325gph pump running on my 125g. And thats around 10 turn overs per hour and if i were to do it again I would get a bigger pump. Even with 10x turn overs i still get alot of debris on the tank floor.
I agree witht he above poster there is no way that you are even getting 400 gph though it's prob closer to 200-250 esp on a pump that small. You def need a bigger pump. Atleast try to shoot for a 5x turn over on your over flow
you can never have to much filtration but you should be fine just make sure the pump is turning over enough water every hour.the lower the pump is in relation to your outlet that is pumping the water out of the sump the more gph you will lose.
if you feel you need more filtration you can always save up for a big canister filer and ad it on later.
if you feel you need more filtration you can always save up for a big canister filer and ad it on later.
dang.... but doest the overflow only collect what is on the surface of water anyway? whatever falls below the overflow line is just going to sink to the bottm no?
yes but that is why you put a power head in the tank to keep the poo from collecting on the surface and that is why i have an fx5 with my sump.
if you get the power head in the right place you will have a sort of "whirlwind" effect in your tank that will direct the debris to the overflow.
you will still need to do your gravel vacuming to collect what the sump misses
if you get the power head in the right place you will have a sort of "whirlwind" effect in your tank that will direct the debris to the overflow.
you will still need to do your gravel vacuming to collect what the sump misses