Need some help and advice on sump

[Racenrich]

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

I made Model #F for my 120g.....works very well. With a three section setup...i have a corner intake chamber with skimmer to the left of that, 3 baffles, center return area and my refuge on the right.....should work well for your setup, in a smaller fashion of course.

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/f/sump_f.html

 

[Racenrich]

oopps...i used Model#G....it has the corner section for return area....

 

[schiavonir]

OK, now that my 15 gallon sump from Rod is almost ready, I need to make some adjustments to my maintenance routine. I've got to get my nitrates under control. I've read a lot about nitrates and all the things that cause them, so I feel like I'm doing the right things, but I'm obviously missing something. Maybe the new sump will solve my problem, but I doubt it will be that easy. Here's what I have:

-65 gallon AGA with overflow
-soon to have 15 gallon sump with fuge (I have that now, but Rod's will be a better setup than my DIY)
-lost track, but at least 100 lbs of LR and 50-100 lbs of LS
-cleanup crew - blue leg hermits, turbos, astreas, tiny hitchhiker starfish, green brittle star, 2 sand sifters
-Fish: 8 in total: blue tang (3"), yellow tang (2"), purple tang (1.5"), eyelash blenny (2"), blue damsel (1.5"), strawberry gramma (2"), pair of ocellaris clowns (1.5" each). Total inches of fish ~ 15.

I was lax with water changes for a long time, but now I am in the habit of changing 5-15 gallons every weekend (depending on how much SW I have mixed.)

I use RO water and I feed at most about 5-6 times per week. I feed either Prime Reef flake food, or a frozen mix of MYSIS, krill, squid, scallops, and shrimp.

I've got a very healthy crop of macro growing in my fuge. I keep a daylight bulb on 24x7. The fuge is also teeming with pods.

I have a cheap JEBO HOB skimmer in my sump which is not very effective. That is being replaced by an octopus (Rod's recommendation) with the new sump. I'll also replace my CAP-2200 return pump with a MAG-7.

OK, so what am I missing? What is causing my nitrate build-up? Popular advice would say to do a huge water change and then continue with smaller water changes. But that's a lot of money and work to go through, and my confidence that this will solve the problem is low. I'm afraid to spend a weekend making 30 gallons of SW and disrupting the tank only to be in the same predicament next weekend.

So all you experts out there - is there something above which sets off an alarm for you? Any other questions about my routines or setup?

Roger

 

[Rod Buehler]

I can talk with you about a lot when you come to pick up your sump.
Re: water changes
Re: sand sifting stars
Re: sand bed/grain size
Re:skimmers

 

[BenjieC]

How much flow do have in your main tank? You might have additional deteris building up in you tank b/c there isn't enough flow. You want a minimum 20x turnover for you total tank volm per hour.

 

[schiavonir]

My return pump is 800gph, pushing water up about 4 feet, so I'm not sure what ends up coming out into the tank. I have 3 maxijet 1200's (295gph) in the tank. One of them is alternating on a wavemaker, so it has an effect gph of 150.

Let's say the return pump gets 600gph by the time it gets up there. That makes:

600 + 295 + 295 + 150 = 1340 gph
Tank is 65g + 10g sump = 75g
That's almost 18x turnover.

But...you're right - I have lots of detritus built-up on the LR. If I were to turkey baste anywhere on the rockwork, I would get big clouds of crap. Is that something I should be doing? How do you position ph such that this doesn't happen? I can't be putting them all over the front and sides.

 

[Racenrich]

sch,
For what its worth....my 55g has almost 2500gph swirling thru it!

800gph on the return
4-MJ1200's=1180gph
-Seio 820=820gph; add that all up and you'll see....

Location wise, i had 2-MJ's at the bottom pushing current on the back wall, 2-MJ's and Seio up top, return had center 4 exits.....

Personally, you can never have enough current!

HTH

 

[schiavonir]

Thanks, racenrich. I bought a bunch of MJ's from derrickd's moving sale, so I can always add them in. Maybe it's time to add something like a Seio. The biggest MJ is only 300gph.

But, I had the question way back in the beginning of the thread - suppose you have monster flow and all your detritus goes to the sump. Then what? Do you clean the sump out, or is it okay to have it down there? If you clean it out of the sump, how do you do that?

 

[Racenrich]

i ran a filter sock on water change day.....outside that nothing else.

oh yeah...lots of snails, red legged and blue legged crabs, great detritus cleaners!

 

[schiavonir]

OK, I'm thinking about getting the SEIO 1500 gph powerhead. With that, the MAG-7 and 3 MJ's (I can put them all back on the wavemaker now), I should have ample flow.