Ideal Turnover Rate?

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Gobrian44

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 25, 2009
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Around.....
What would you guys say would be the ideal turn over rate of any tank. Reasonable stocked (80-110%). Figured more people may have the same question.
 
There are so many things that come into play, like what kinda fish you are keeping, SW or FW, and what kind of filtration your useing. 10x turn over in a wet/dry sump with a fuge may be rediculous overkill or even unpractical depending on design, while 10x HOB turn over on the same exact tank may be just right. Its all subjective and anything is possiable. Would you filter a heavily stocked 180g planted discus tank the same as a well stocked predator tank? probably not. But for the sake of this discussion, the "rule of thumb" that I have seen most often for SA/CA tanks is that you should aim for approx. 5x turn over for your average wet/dry sump, 7x for canisters and 10x+ for HOB filters.
 
thanks bitteraspects and Err!
 
I've got an AC50 on a 12"x12" cube. 200 GPH for about 6 gallons of water :ROFL: so anywhere from 10x turn over on minimal flow or 30x turn over on fully open.... My water is pretty clear too
 
bitteraspects;3879057; said:
where did you get these figures?
How do you figure 10x on a wet/dry is "overkill"?

I'm not saying it is, but it could be for a given application or design. Ex: a 240g tank with a 75 gal tank as a sump holding roughly 40-45g at operateing level, it has a refugeum with lots of free floating plants or macro algae. It may not be to your benifit to try and pull 2400+ gph through that system. Infact the extra flow may be redundant or detramental to having a fuge in the first place depending on what your trying to do with it. You might be better off in the the neighborhood of 12-1400 gph flow rate. On the flip side if you have the same style system 240g/75g with absalutely nothing but a giant chamber full of scrubbies that do nothing but make NO3 then by all means, crank as much water as your over flows can handle if you want, it would probably be better that way.

Btw this is Err, I just wanted to change my name :screwy:
 
Different types/sizes of fish prefer different flow rates...

Different types of filters perform different at different flow rates...

There are different forms of filtration...


"10 times turnover" i san age old "rule of thumb", but by namture a "rule of thumb" bypasses various details.

Thus when you take into account different details or factors, the "Ideal Turnover" will vary considerably...


In my opinion, all to often people want something more specific than the rule of thumb but do not want to consider all the details that allow them to do so...
 
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