How Much Turnover Is Needed Per Hour?

I've been seeing a lot of conflicting opinions on this. The go to recommendation here on Fish Lore seems to be 10x tank volume per hour.

Several prominent and very successful aquarists recommend (and use) ~6 times tank volume per hour.

Does the turn over requirement vary depending on if you're using HoB vs canister vs sump filtration?

I'm just trying to figure if I need more filtration or not. The filter I'm running (Penguin 350) is rated for 70 gallons by the manufacturer (I know these recommendations are worth nothing) and its flow rate gives me ~7x turn over per hour in my 52 gallon tank.

I also have a Rena Filstar XP2 (equivalent to the API Filstar XP M). I'd *prefer* to just run one filter instead of two, but could run both if needed.

 

Filtration is just like stocking it depends on many things. Tank size, actual gallons of water, stocking, obstacles in the tank, plants, list would go on and on. As long as you can maintain zero ammonia and zero nitrites you have adequit filtration.

 

Filtration is just like stocking it depends on many things. Tank size, actual gallons of water, stocking, obstacles in the tank, plants, list would go on and on. As long as you can maintain zero ammonia and zero nitrites you have adequit filtration.

Okay, that is generally what I thought. I'd just seen several discussions where 10x turn over per hour was defended pretty dogmatically. To me, 10x turnover seems like a lot of flow. I'll just continue to monitor ammonia and nitrite and change something up if I'm seeing them in the water.

 

I actually had a thread on here asking were these numbers came from. Best answer I got was so new hobbiests had enough filter. Lol. On my 75 gallon I run a single aqua clear 110 turned all the way down. Big tank but light bio load and lots of floating plants.

 

I like to generally stick with 10x turnover unless you are using a sump. But that's just me. When it comes to filtration it's always better to err on the side of too much as opposed to not enough.

But it really comes down to stocking level. There really is no need to have 750 gph of filtration on a 75 gallon tank for 10 neon tetras.

 

I recommend 8-10x’s tank volume for HOB and 5x’s for canisters. This is usually for new aquarists. That way they don’t start out underfiltered. I would rather recommend someone have too much, than to not have enough.

The Penguin 350 has 350gph. So it is almost there. If you want to increase your filtration, add a couple sponge filters. They will increase your gph and are pretty cheap.

I have a 55 gallon tank and upgraded to a canister filter. Love it. Sooo efficient. I highly recommend a canister versus a HoB