how many times a hour should the water go through the sump?

[mr.wilson]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Half the problem now seems to be everyone going big display tanks and small sumps. Back when sumps were 1st introduced they were always as big or bigger than the display. Now I am seeing 75 gallons with 20 gallon sumps, which is much too small.

I think a lot of people get caught up in the challenge of fitting as much equipment as possible in a small footprint. If you have the space, always go for as much system volume as you can fit. You can pick up 500 gallon water tanks for a lot less money than the equipment it would take to give you the same water quality. Even daisy chaining a bunch of 50 gallon plastic drums and keeping them in a cool place works well as the flow rate doesn't need to be very fast... oh here we go again