Sump Confusion

[squiddly]

In my 120 tank, we had noticed lots of difficulty with bubbles, etc. The old setup had water coming through floss into a trickle plate, through an empty acrylic cube, into another empty acrylic cube underneath it, which would feed into an overflow, which fed into the return chamber which was another acrylic cube. The "I love sawing up PVC pipes" husband thought that it would be a much better set up if he took out the tricle plate, replummed things, and put the protein skimmer in the first chamber, so the water flow goes into the protein skimmer chamber, then into the overflow, then into the return. Our newbie question is - are we missing anything by not having mechanical filtration? The hose from the tank doesn't trickle the water through anything so there is no gas exchange until it hits the overflow.

 

Should we put live rock into the overflow chamber? Should we put carbon into the overflow chamber? Will there be problems with particulates coming into the sump now that there's no floss to stop it? The next plan is adding a chamber for a refugium that he plans to put before the protein skimmer. I am concerned that the protein skimmer would skim out the really good stuff coming out of the refugium. Should I take the saw and glue away from the husband? He's already successfully modified the tank by removing the overflow (and the siphon which offended him) and drilling holes into my tank and doing some odd kind of plumbing thing. I'll take pictures sometime, but not today because I'm exhausted after bailing out sumps and carrying buckets.

[HowardofNOVA]

WHAT DID YOU SAY??

 

Should I take the saw and glue away from the husband?

Give him a time out for now!

 

Any chance you could post a pic soon?

 

So you had a trickle filtration system and now it's removed correct? aka husbands DIY Work?

The skimmer will take some but not enough to worry about.

Gas exchange should be fine with the skimmer alone, being it will saturate the water first before and measureable skimmate will be produced

How big is your tank and what powerheads if any do you have for flow there?

LR in your sump would be ok, but as long as you have enough in the main tank to produce areas for bacteria to grow, not needed, but couldn't hurt.

[squiddly]

WHAT DID YOU SAY??

Give him a time out for now!

 

He says "but that's a BAD thing" :-)

 

Yes, the trickle filtration is gone now. The tank is a 120 with 40 lbs live sand (over another 40 of crushed coral) and 120 lbs of live rock. The main pump is 1200 gph and blew all the fish to one side of the tank while we were adjusting it. I also have 2 maxjet 1200s in there, but you know, I think the fish may decide there's a hurricane going on in there and they want to move out. The old sump system before the DH (dearest husband) got hold of it is on my reef blog at http://web.mac.com/mikkibarry. If you click on tank pics there are all the purty tank pix along with the sump. I'm taking some now of the new plumbing and will let you know when they're up.... if I can get husband away from the tank long enough for me to even take pictures. The last iteration of "fixes" were to get rid of the intermittent annoying water sound that made everyone in the room simultaneously feel the urge to go to the bathroom :-).

[squiddly]

I posted the before and after sump change pictures at http://web.mac.com/mikkibarry. *phew*

[dandy7200]

I would leave the skimmer in the sump as pictured and set up your refugium in the next compartment. I t looks like you are getting good flow in that so it will tumble macro nicely. It looks as though you have a bag of media of some sort in that chamber but it doesn't look black enough for my taste (switch it to carbon). Where you have the water entering into the sump into that pvc tube, I would change that to a 100 micron filter sock. You will be AMAZED by how much crap it collects. Figure out what size you want and then buy at least 5 or 6 of them. That sums up my thoughts on your mechanical filtration. As for the saw in your husbands hands, all I can say is NEVER GET INBETWEEN A MAN AND HIS TOOLS! Serously don't you need him to build you a filter sock holder with that saw anyway?

[squiddly]

I would leave the skimmer in the sump as pictured and set up your refugium in the next compartment. I t looks like you are getting good flow in that so it will tumble macro nicely. It looks as though you have a bag of media of some sort in that chamber but it doesn't look black enough for my taste (switch it to carbon).

 

Did you mean set up the refugium in the overflow area, AND put carbon in it? I've sent the hubby the suggestion on the sock. Thanks! He WAS going to put the cube we removed from the trickle chamber to the right of the skimmer and make the refugium in there. Would that be better or worse?

 

Thank you so much guys. We really appreciate the help.

[dandy7200]

I thought there were three compartments in your sump. The plan for the fuge out of cube is a good one. If you find you don't have room next to the skimmer (hard to tell in the pic) put some pvc legs on it and suspend it over your return area.

[squiddly]

I thought there were three compartments in your sump. The plan for the fuge out of cube is a good one. If you find you don't have room next to the skimmer (hard to tell in the pic) put some pvc legs on it and suspend it over your return area.

 

Wow...good idea! I'll let him know. Looks like we're going to have room next to the skimmer though. Then I'll be able to put carbon into the overflow. I *was* running carbon filled bioballs. Is that a useful thing? Given the number of "bioballs are awful" posts I've seen, I thought I'd ask :-).

 

Thank you thank you thank you.

[dandy7200]

Bulk carbon run in a bag is much cheaper regardless of the effects of the bioballs.

[squiddly]

Bulk carbon run in a bag is much cheaper regardless of the effects of the bioballs.

 

True. I already have the bioballs though. A fabulous side effect of the sump move is that my setup now has NO bubbles and it looks really great. I am a happy camper.