Return Pump Recommendation Poll

[Myka]

Originally Posted by lockrookie

if he had 50 to 100 times in a 90 he must be careful of what substrate he adds to the tank.

I have about 50 times turnover in my tank plus a Tunze Wavebox. I would have more flow, but the LPS are already mad about this higher flow. I'm in the process of moving all LPS out, and will increase flow for the SPS. I had Caribsea Select sand in there that stayed on the bottom, although divots were made where there is heavy flow. The tank is mostly bare bottom now that I removed most of the sand (nothing to do with the flow). Caribsea Special sand is more coarse and is my favourite sand, it is the best sand to use for high flow. It is pricier than the others though.

Originally Posted by ensquire

As for your second post, are you saying that for a 90 gallon SPS tank that a person should be looking for 4500 to 9000 GPH turnover ? If so looks like I need a couple of more powerheads.

Is your tank SPS dominant? If you have any LPS or softies you will have to keep the flow on the lower end of the (4500 gph or so) or you will blow the tissue off the fleshy corals. If you just have SPS or almost all SPS look at two Tunze 6105 powerheads. That's what I'm going to put in my tank once all the LPS are out. They are a good fit for a 90 gallon SPS tank. I will also put my Tunze 6055 behind the rocks to provide flow in that area as well. That's about 8300 gph.

One thing to note, turnover calculations have changed since propeller-type powerheads have dominated the market. Since propeller powerheads provide gentler, wider flow patterns we can get much higher turnover than we could with impeller-type powerheads that provide a very direct, jet-like flow pattern.