I just thought I would pipe in hear because I see and hear this a lot and I don't under stand. You asked if it would have enough flow. my question is why do you want a lot of flow. You want a flow rate through the sump of about 2 to 3 max times the tank volume. I have see friends tanks that they had flow rates like 800 to 1000 gal/h and as we are admiring the tank he says " Ya its OK looks not to bad" and yes it could look better " but my skimmer sucks I need to get a bigger one". Now lets stop here and look at say 100 gal tank say 30 gal sump add rocks sand and your back to say 75 to 100 Gal volume. Now in this sump you have say a couple reactors and a skimmer that is rated accordingly. Now if you look at the average pin wheel skimmer the water through the skimmer is say 100 to 160 gal/h lets say 145 ( Omega 150 rating ) and we are trying to feed it with water that is traveling 800 to 1000 even 500 gal/h and can't figure out why the skimmer is not preforming like it should and the GAC is crap and my phosphates won't go down or won't go any lower, well you have dialed back the flow rate on the GFO and GAC to about 50 to 80 Gal/h so it just has a slight tumble. Now this is fine if you have all this stuff hanging on the tank and you a feeding them directly in and out of the tank. We have to look at it like the sump is the feed point for all these great devices and adjust the feed accordingly. So back to my example, and you go out and get a bigger skimmer and it preforms better, why is it because its bigger or because it has a larger pump that has a higher flow rate through the skimmer.
Anyhow I think you know what I am trying to say by now SLOW flow through the Sump and higher flow rate within the Tank. As for my friend I told him dial back on the flow through the sump and crank up those wave makers that you have dialed back because you say there is too much flow in the tank.
He called me a week later and said his skimmer is working fantastic pulling black stinky stuff out and tank has never looked so good.
Just one more point. You go back 10-15 years and it was the opposite you had a beast of a skimmer that was fed with Mag 12 min to Mag 24's or Gen X high pressure pumps into a Becket or Down Draft system and then it was my skimmer sucks I need a bigger one its not working as it should then you where asked what's your flow rate to the sump, ah 400 to 500 not enough you have to up it to at least 800 to 1000 Gal. your not feeding enough go figure I have a pump that's pushing 1200 to 2000 Gal/h into the skimmer and I'm not feeding it enough.
Anyhow just something to think about.
All the best.
Mike
|