Return flow advice please

[Riaan_Nano_20]

Hi everyone

So I was hoping you can give me a rule of thumb or formula to calculate the amount of times my water should ve circulated in an hour? I have a 300 liter display, and I am working on a 10 times per hour water circulation(through the sump) which brings me to 3000l/h return flow.

The problem is it is extremely strong and causing a very strong "current" in the display.

So two questions I guess...
1. What is the minimum waterflow you would suggest?
2. How do I spread the return flow the lessen the strong flow at one point?

 

[Riaan_Nano_20]

Hi. Is this community still running??? I dont really ever get any responses on my questions? Dies anyone see these post or am I just being ignored?

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

 

[Pistolshrimp]

Hi everyone

So I was hoping you can give me a rule of thumb or formula to calculate the amount of times my water should ve circulated in an hour? I have a 300 liter display, and I am working on a 10 times per hour water circulation(through the sump) which brings me to 3000l/h return flow.

The problem is it is extremely strong and causing a very strong "current" in the display.

So two questions I guess...
1. What is the minimum waterflow you would suggest?
2. How do I spread the return flow the lessen the strong flow at one point?

Hey Buddy, one way of doing it is to add multiple returns to split up the flow from the sump.

You will also need to supplement the flow inside the tank with additional wavmakers, depending on what you want to keep, the goal is to eliminate dead flow spots and keep detritus suspended as much as possible

 

[brentch]

Hey Bud, I'd do what Pistolshrimp suggested. If the flow is strong then split it up and direct one of them going one way and the other in another direction. Alternatively put a valve, but that would just be wasting power. I am assuming you don't have a DC pump that can be varied... I think I am running my sump at around 3 times the volume (true volume, accounting for head height) which seems to work nicely (also bare in mind I also split this into 2 separate tanks so it's even less)... I like the sump to be low flow cause the detritus collects there and I just siphon it out during a water change, making my life so easy. Yu could also use the return flow to split off just after the pump to power a media reactor or add flow to a chaeto ball etc...


So ideally I'd say try get a smaller pump, split the incoming flow, or put a valve on the return pipe.