Measure GPH (1 Viewer)

[Niko5]

Does anyone know a good way to measure GPH off a powerhead?

 

[mxmisl]

The easist way is to look up the data from the manufacturer
The next easist way to measure GPH is allow the pump to pump water into a fixed volume container (i.e., a 1 gallon jug) clock the time it takes to fill the container and calculate accordingly.
As an example-If the pump fills the jug in 1 min then your pumping 60gph
Lastly, you can install an inline flow meter to determine flow

 

[BrianPlankis]

I only know of one way(because I've never looked for another). I had a pump I bought used that I had no idea how much GPH it had. So I put it in my sump near the bottom, attached the output to the return line to my main tank. I made a mark on the sump at the low water line, then filled up the sump with a known number of gallons of water(I think around 20) and ran the pump until it returned back down to the mark on the sump. I timed this with a stopwatch and that gave me an CRUDE approximate GPH.

 

[Guest]

I only know of one way(because I've never looked for another). I had a pump I bought used that I had no idea how much GPH it had. So I put it in my sump near the bottom, attached the output to the return line to my main tank. I made a mark on the sump at the low water line, then filled up the sump with a known number of gallons of water(I think around 20) and ran the pump until it returned back down to the mark on the sump. I timed this with a stopwatch and that gave me an CRUDE approximate GPH.

One problem there is if you repeat the same test with the powerhead off you'll still have a flow. The first way is betta IMO, just try to minimize the head loss (don't elevate the powerhead outlet)

 

[Niko5]

Well the only problem is its a Stream kind of pump it doesent have a place I can just hook a hose to its a 1 1/2" outlet on the powerhead... I was thinking about putting 2 tubs side by side and drilling a hold between them and put the output in it then filling one with water and leave the other empty then turn on the pwoerhead.. but it may not be accurate cause the water would flow to the empty tub anyway...

 

[BrianPlankis]

When I first read the post I thought he said pump, not powerhead, so I'll have to agree the first post is the better answer.

Actually on my test I had the tank overflow going to another tub, so with the powerhead off there wouldn't be a flow. Of course you have the problem of as the sump water level went down there was less pressure from the remaining water. I was only looking for a crude approximation and I was interesting in seeing the flow including the head pressure as that is what I was going to use it for, with a powerhead you would want to minimize that.

B.

 

[Niko5]

If i take the powerhead and put it in a container that holds 1 gal of water plug it in and time how long it takes to blow the water out that is pretty accurate huh?

 

[AggieBrandon]

You will suffer a little loss of flow do to the height it has to pump the water out of the container but it would be fairly accurate. I would conduct the experiment a few times and then take the average and see what you come up with.

Brandon