a new problem, immediately

[mike tv]

my tiny pump died from being clogged with sand particles after i added 15lbs of live sand that was still settling in the water. which i asked a question about an hour or so ago in this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1461167

what are my options here?

i dont want to drill the tank particularly, as its nothing but practice, just keep the rock and sand alive, cycle it and possibly add a fish down the road.
would simply adding a powerhead to it do the trick if i were making 10% water changes weely or semi-weekly?

 

[flamron]

clean the pump....unless it burned up, I would imagine it would still work.

GL

 

[mike tv]

thank you
i love this place

 

[Sk8r]

most pumps are constructed so the impeller will stop but not strip out: if jammed, just disassemble the impeller area. sometimes you can even stick a chopstick down into the visible impeller and push it a little (with power off). Then plug in and see if that cleared it. In a maxijet, you can unscrew the whole front of the pump easily and get the impeller rotating again. in an Iwaki, the impeller decouples, but can be easily restarted once the obstacle is cleared.

 

[mike tv]

this is like having a team of experts in the next room, i dont have to wonder or worry about anything for long!
i sincerely believe that this is what the internet was invented for.

might as well ask, can the carbon be introduced too directly into my system? i dont think any of it is getting in the tank, staying in the makeshift hang-on sump where the filter is wedged

a lot of bubbles which i assume are carbon are now present at the site where the flow comes down into the tank

 

[Sk8r]

If you're trying to cycle, leave the carbon out and just let the ammonia/nitrate cycle run its course. Feed a few flakes of fishfood to the tank daily until your tests show ammonia, then wait for the ammonia to go away. Test it with more fishfood. When ammonia no longer results, you have a cycled sandbed/live rock, because it is 'eating' it all and turning it to nitrogen gas.

 

[BurntOutReefer]

"a lot of bubbles which i assume are carbon "...???????????
are you talking about C02?
or are you confused about the whole carbon thing....?

 

[mike tv]

no, i put a pad filter with an activated carbon chamber in front of the feed to the sump section, which resulted in bubbles on the outflow

 

[mike tv]

which i now took out
as sk8r has advised me on three (likely) incredibly obvious questions
thanks by the way
ill get this figured out sooner or later