please help with a flow question?

[fishin with wheels]

hello all, i am new to this site and only 1 year in this hobby. where can i find how much flow my tank needs with my return pump? im in the works of setting up a 220 gallon reef mixed tank 72"Lx30"Wx24"H. how many gph do i need for this size? im looking at reeflo pumps gold series, my head feet is between 13-15. please help, thanks.

[CarmieJo]

Hi Wes and to TR! That is going to be a beautiful tank. I would aim for a minimum total flow in the tank of 20 tanks an hour (and up to 40x) but you don't want that to all be running through the sump. Are you going to be using powerheads for additional flow or running a closed loop?

[fishin with wheels]

hello carmie, i have 2 vortex e40 from ecotech, i hope that will be enough? im not sure what you mean closed loop? please remember im kinda new whith this stuff.

[CarmieJo]

Do you know what the flow rate of the e40's is?

[fishin with wheels]

up to 3000gph each.

[saxman]

Reeflo makes several nice pumps, and I'd say with that amount of head, you'll need a Barracuda (as a minimum), which will put out about 2250 gph at 14' of head. I highly recommend running supplemental flow such as a CL (closed-loop) instead of PH (powerheads)...the look is cleaner (who wants to look at ugly-a$$ PH's in a nice DT?), and they work really well.

As far as running flow "thru the sump", unless you have a fuge section, it doesn't matter how much flow you run thru the sump, as at that point, you're simply boosting water volume and providing a place to hide equipment.

[fishin with wheels]

thankyou greg, i just got a reeflo barracuda gold today, i guess im on the right track.