The 600 GpH is the rate that your wave maker should be running to achieve the appropriate turnover rate. Okay, let’s assume you have a tank that has great swimmers and no coral so the equation would be 30-gallons x 20 times per hour = 600 GpH. You should lean on the higher end of the spectrum if the fish in your tank are good swimmers and lower on the spectrum if they are not so great swimmers. If you are working with a reef tank with only fish, you are generally aiming for a turnover that is between 10 and 20 times per hour. This is where knowing the requirements of the species in your tank is so important. Your required minimum turnover rate will be different depending on what kind of saltwater aquarium setup you have. So this means, your current reef aquarium’s water movement is turning the water over about 6 and a half times an hour. The 6.6 times per hour is your current turnover rate not your minimum turnover rate. In practice, if you have a 30-gallon tank and a flow rate of 200 gallons per hour being generated by your powerhead then your equation should look like 200 GpH/30 G=6.6 times per hour. The equation is xGpH/yG=z times per hour. Turnover rate is essentially a measurement applied to understand how quickly your water flow will move the entire volume of water in your tank. Now that you have a basic understanding of water flow and its potential effects on the water quality in your reef aquarium, it’s time to understand how to calculate the turnover rate. Imagine if the entire tank didn’t have flow then and it was just one big dead spot? We make a big deal of trying to eliminate dead spots where the flow can not reach so that the entirety of the aquarium is being cleaned. I already mentioned this a little bit but the movement of the water kicks up waste, food, algae, etc., and potentially carries it to a more open space where it can be picked up by a filter/skimmer. The fish in your aquarium will continuously swim to keep to the area in the tank they would prefer to be in despite the current slowly pushing them somewhere else. You may not think about it too often since your fish appear to be in constant motion but your fish need exercise like most any other creature on this planet. I imagine you would have invested in saltwater fish that had similar ranges in temperature so ensuring that your heater can effectively disperse the heat that your fish need is crucial. The turning over of the water within your tank not only helps to bring nutrients to the rest of the tank, but it will also more evenly distribute the heat throughout your tank. Here is a list of other benefits that should help to give a clearer picture of why flow can be so important when designing your saltwater aquarium. The greatest benefit of all being that it mixes the water up inside our tank for even distribution of nutrients. Water flow is the movement of the water in your reef tank.
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