75 gal setup

Justletters7

New member
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the long list but I have just setup my 75gal and 40gal sump and refugium and have some questions and concerns that I hope you guys can answer.
My equipment includes a CPR HOB overflow rated for 800 gph that has 75" id pvc pipe sytem fitted to it and a EHIEM 2000 return pump rated
for 500gph. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus 150, a Fluval LED light fixture, 3x Hydor Koralia Nano power heads, and 2x 100 watt Aqueon heaters.

My first concern is that my return pump chamber keeps lowering its water level, I feel like its just leveling out the water but I am still worried about it. There is no water level change in any other chamber besides the return and the overflow which both have dropped.

My next concern is that I believe I have messed up my bubble trap baffles, the third baffle is only .75" above the tank floor which seems to be slowing the flow though the skimmer chamber. I feel like I need to empty this chamber and raise it up to at least 1" but would like to check with you guys first. I also believe this is affecting my temperature because my heaters are also located in this chamber.

As stated above I have a Fluval reef light, which is for LPS and Soft coral, I have read that is will reach the sand bed at around 16"-18". My question is how high up should I raise the light fixture above my tank and keep this range in check?

Then comes the most important part the salinity level, my level is holding at 1.022 and would like to raise it about .003 and I just want to double check so that I do this right, I remove say a gallon of tank water and use fresh RO water to mix a gallon to 1.025 and add it to the tank and wait 24hrs so to see if it change, and then repeat until the desire reading is reached, right?

Thank you for your time I cannot tell you how much I appreciative it.
 
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the long list but I have just setup my 75gal and 40gal sump and refugium and have some questions and concerns that I hope you guys can answer.
My equipment includes a CPR HOB overflow rated for 800 gph that has 75" id pvc pipe sytem fitted to it and a EHIEM 2000 return pump rated
for 500gph. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus 150, a Fluval LED light fixture, 3x Hydor Koralia Nano power heads, and 2x 100 watt Aqueon heaters.

My first concern is that my return pump chamber keeps lowering its water level, I feel like its just leveling out the water but I am still worried about it. There is no water level change in any other chamber besides the return and the overflow which both have dropped.

My next concern is that I believe I have messed up my bubble trap baffles, the third baffle is only .75" above the tank floor which seems to be slowing the flow though the skimmer chamber. I feel like I need to empty this chamber and raise it up to at least 1" but would like to check with you guys first. I also believe this is affecting my temperature because my heaters are also located in this chamber.

As stated above I have a Fluval reef light, which is for LPS and Soft coral, I have read that is will reach the sand bed at around 16"-18". My question is how high up should I raise the light fixture above my tank and keep this range in check?

Then comes the most important part the salinity level, my level is holding at 1.022 and would like to raise it about .003 and I just want to double check so that I do this right, I remove say a gallon of tank water and use fresh RO water to mix a gallon to 1.025 and add it to the tank and wait 24hrs so to see if it change, and then repeat until the desire reading is reached, right?

Thank you for your time I cannot tell you how much I appreciative it.

Do you have a picture or diagram of your sump? Typical 40g is 18" wide so a baffle 3/4" above the bottom of the tank is capable of flow flowing a ton of water (many times what your return pump is capable of.

If there isnt anything living in the tank right now, you can simply raise the salinity by adding more salt mix. If there are live critters in the tank, replaced the evaporating water with salt water; this will slowly increase the salinity to your desired levels.
 
Unfortunately I am having difficulties posting a picture of the sump the dimensions of each baffle are 10x17.5x.25 thick with a 1" gap between the baffles. Right now the water in the skimmer chamber and the water between the first and second baffle are at the same height, in the picture that I have seen there is usually a waterfall here but mine does not have one.

As for the adding salt how much do you recommend adding I was thinking about a 1/4 of a cup.
 
Is the layout similar to this one? If so, the water level in the return compartment (far right) will rise and fall with top off/evaporation. Water in the other chambers remains relatively constant (changes slightly based on how dirty that foam block gets).

 
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In the area where you have a sponge, I have a third baffle in the return section that would be the same height as the first baffle in the refugium. Also my sump has the return section in the middle with the refugium at the far right. Thanks for explaining the return section it was driving me nuts as the why the levels kept changing.
 
From what I have been reading the bottom gap of your baffles should be at minimum the same height as the distance between your baffles. So in your case you have a 1" gap between them therefore you should have at least a 1" gap at the bottom of your second baffle.


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Thanks for the help I believe I have solved the baffle and return pump problems just needed to say them out load lol. I will reduce the water level in the skimmer chamber so that I have the water fall again and move my ATO to the return chamber. I still need some help with the light fixture though I don't want to have it to close to the corals or to far away them and my idea for the stand will be permanent so I need it right the first time.Also I added 1 Tbsp of salt and will see what it is tomarrow thanks again.
 
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