filter question

[craigofva]

ok i tryed asking this question the other day but i guessed i worded it wrong, so lets try this again.

how many of gph does your filter do for every gallon of water in the tank?

[scapegoat]

Originally Posted by craigofva

ok i tryed asking this question the other day but i guessed i worded it wrong, so lets try this again.

how many of gph does your filter do for every gallon of water in the tank?

I think you generally want a 10 time turnover rate. so 10gph per gallon of tank. I think most people end up around 4-6 times once everything is said and done (taking into account pressure drop due to piping distance, and filtration itself)

[craigofva]

Originally Posted by scapegoat

I think you generally want a 10 time turnover rate. so 10gph per gallon of tank. I think most people end up around 4-6 times once everything is said and done (taking into account pressure drop due to piping distance, and filtration itself)

so what your saying for a 50 gallon tank i would want a filter ratted at 500 gph?

[scapegoat]

Originally Posted by craigofva

so what your saying for a 50 gallon tank i would want a filter ratted at 500 gph?

[Kathyy]

If you don't want to have it all out of one filter you could have two filters or use power heads! Basically you want to see the plants moving a little throughout the tank.

I am not sure how much flow I have. My two sump pumps can do about 2500 gph total but with head loss are probably doing more like 1300-1400 gph for my 180 gallon tank. That means my flow is somewhere between 7 and 13.5x the volume of my tank. Then as the plants fill in the actual water distribution is altered so more water movement might be a good idea.

[CrypticLifeStyle]

Yeah I stick with 10x+ myself. Its not really a scientific rule, but more of a general one that seems to work for fish people like myself. It all comes down to how well your filter processes the bio-load which you can determine by your water tests to accurately determine what your specific needs are, and always better to over filter then under filter :-)