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

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by mr.wilson

It doesn't have to exactly matched. As I stated in the example above...

If the return pump is too strong, the extra water the skimmer can't handle will bypass the skimmer and go over the glass partition to the second zone. If the return pump is too weak, the extra water processed by the protein skimmer will overflow backwards over the glass partition back into the on deck circle for the skimmer. Both scenarios are less than perfect but what is

Then by your own words, is NOT a FIFO. can not have extra, or recirculating water for a FIFO style sump

For a FIFO, All water that enters sump, needs to pass through the skimmer ONCE, then on through the rest of the system ONCE, then back to tank. NO bypass, and no water recircing in loops. Everything is in series.