Frogmanx82
New member
I put this in my tank thread but thought it might be of interest here. I've been running the Eshopps R100 for about 5 months and wanted to share my experience with it.
I like the channel design of this sump that allows water to take two paths through the sump. One path, about 90% of the flow, goes through the filter sock and then on to the skimmer before hitting the return pump. The other path avoids the sock and goes right to the refugium which overflows directly to the return pump and avoids the skimmer.
What I also like is that the water goes into the sump and then upflows to the filter sock. This is a good spot to put GFO if needed.
For the filter sock, after messing around with floss and various socks I find it best with a mesh sock with the top cut back as much as possible to fit inside the felt sock and I weigh the mesh sock down with a piece of rubble rock.
Also for this filter I found that air can get trapped in the space the filter sock is in so I put a small breathing tube in the top.
Over the refugium I have a 36 watt led grow light. It has 3 blue and 9 red leds, 3w each. You see I have a nice ball of cheato and the way the water enters the refugium it generates a nice rotation to the cheato ball. When it stops spinning I know its time to thin it out. The channel design puts an inch between the bottom of the refugium area and the bottom of the sump to allow water to get from the filter sock to the skimmer without going through the refugium.
In the skimmer area I went with an Octo 110 which fits pretty well. I control the ATO with a level control in this area. Also float a bag of carbon and put a bag of biobeads in a bag rubber banded to the skimmer outflow.
The return pump is a Jebao DCT 4000 which at 4ft head is probably 600 to 800 gph.
I really recommend this sump. Stays pretty clean as these pictures show after about 5 months of running and phosphates are below 0.02 and nitrates non detect.
When the filter socks start to back up the water overflows into the refugium so flow there can increase a bit. I haven't seen any issue even with a badly plugged sock where the water had any issue getting through the refugium so it seems a pretty good failsafe. There is some very coarse sponge between the refugium and return as well as from the skimmer to the return.
I'm very happy with this sump. It does a lot in a compact space and handles my 90 gallon tank very well.
I like the channel design of this sump that allows water to take two paths through the sump. One path, about 90% of the flow, goes through the filter sock and then on to the skimmer before hitting the return pump. The other path avoids the sock and goes right to the refugium which overflows directly to the return pump and avoids the skimmer.
What I also like is that the water goes into the sump and then upflows to the filter sock. This is a good spot to put GFO if needed.
For the filter sock, after messing around with floss and various socks I find it best with a mesh sock with the top cut back as much as possible to fit inside the felt sock and I weigh the mesh sock down with a piece of rubble rock.
Also for this filter I found that air can get trapped in the space the filter sock is in so I put a small breathing tube in the top.
Over the refugium I have a 36 watt led grow light. It has 3 blue and 9 red leds, 3w each. You see I have a nice ball of cheato and the way the water enters the refugium it generates a nice rotation to the cheato ball. When it stops spinning I know its time to thin it out. The channel design puts an inch between the bottom of the refugium area and the bottom of the sump to allow water to get from the filter sock to the skimmer without going through the refugium.
In the skimmer area I went with an Octo 110 which fits pretty well. I control the ATO with a level control in this area. Also float a bag of carbon and put a bag of biobeads in a bag rubber banded to the skimmer outflow.
The return pump is a Jebao DCT 4000 which at 4ft head is probably 600 to 800 gph.
I really recommend this sump. Stays pretty clean as these pictures show after about 5 months of running and phosphates are below 0.02 and nitrates non detect.
When the filter socks start to back up the water overflows into the refugium so flow there can increase a bit. I haven't seen any issue even with a badly plugged sock where the water had any issue getting through the refugium so it seems a pretty good failsafe. There is some very coarse sponge between the refugium and return as well as from the skimmer to the return.
I'm very happy with this sump. It does a lot in a compact space and handles my 90 gallon tank very well.
