Ideal flow through sump

jlbrew3

Non-member
Hi all - thanks for the continued input/advice as I put together this Reefer 250. Tank is now full and cycling. My question for the group is how to identify the ideal flow rate through my sump.

I managed to get a great deal on a Vectra M2 return pump. I know it's overkill for this size tank but it's whisper-quiet and seems to be performing great.

What should I set it at? Right now it's at a whopping 2% power and I have the Reefer's diaphragm/gate valve dialed in so that the whole thing is essentially silent. But I'm pretty sure I'm not getting the flow the tank wants/needs. Water is mostly trickling/gently flowing through the sump.

The M2 is a 2000 gph pump. Red Sea says to target ~660 gph for this tank. Does that mean I should be setting the pump to ~33% power and trying and trying to work back towards silent operation by adjusting the valve? I'm going to experiment a bit tonight and just see what happens but thought it'd be helpful to try and get some input on what I should be aiming for.

Thanks!
 
Winter I normally slow it down a touch to help out the heaters but I crank mine as much as I can. Imo minimum would be 30% due to head height loss your probably gonna be around 40%. I run a l2 at 70% but a completely different set up and have never had a quiet tank untill I moved my sump to the basement.
 
" Red Sea says to target ~660 gph for this tank."

Through a sump? Or total water flow? It's best to run flow through the sump slowly, imo. Especially if you have mechanical, or bio- filtration in there. I ran a 90 gallon basement sump for years with approx. 100 gph and it ran beautiful.
 
Does anyone have an actual flow meter for their tank? If so, I’d love to rent it from you
 
@stingythingy45 it's vague. The site just says "Return Pump recommended flow: 660 gph." Last night I got the M2 to 40% power (so ~800 gph less whatever is lost to head height) while maintaining essentially silent operation.

Related to @this is me 's comment, how do I know what the flow or turnover even is? The display is 54g an sump is 11g. While I can certainly tell water is moving through the sump faster now that the pump is turned up, it's certainly not rushing through. I'd still describe the water going through the filter socks or through the various baffles as a more of a steady flow than a rush. It's not bubbling or looking disturbed in a meaningful way.
 
The display is 54gal.
1x turnover rate is 54gph. Meaning you’re turning over the tank volume in an hour.
2x is 54x2=108GPH and so on.

This is your M1/M2 flow chart at 100% power.
M1_Dimensions-Flow1.jpg


Let say your head is around 4'(if the tank is on the same floor as your sump). At 100% power, the pump is doing 1400GPH(estimate, draw a horizontal line from 4' and intersect the curve and draw a vertical line).
I never seen power vs. flow chart from Ecotech so assume linear power vs flow output. That puts you 10% for 140GPH or about 2.5x your turnover. That's where I would start.
 
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