rumble
New member
I've been spending all of my free time the past few weeks researching reef tanks, lighting, and sumps, and I'm still a little confused. I'm doing a setup for my mom (God bless her for letting me practice with her money!) and I really want to make sure its done right the first time. Any advice you guys have time to give would be appreciated.
What we have:
She bought the Oceanic Illuminata 57G rimless RR tank setup from AC a few weeks ago. That included (among other things) a Oceanic Model 1 Reef Ready Sump. I'll have to describe it because I don't have a picture right now: it's a 20G high (24"x13"x17" I think). It features a box with a tray on top for filter pads and a large chamber for holding bioballs, with plenty of large slots in the bottom and sides for water to flow through. This contraption takes up about half of the main sump chamber (and there are only two chambers). The 2nd chamber is about 6" wide, and is separated by a black plastic baffle-type thing that's 2" wide and 7" tall with a sponge at the bottom. So I'm figuring the design is water would flow from the drain through the wet/dry and a skimmer in the same chamber, over the baffle, through the sponge, and back up through the return.
My problem:
Of course, this doesn't look good to me. I don't like the bioballs concept, and I want to put in a refugium w/DSB, live rock, and cheato for nitrate export and cultivating natural food that can't be bought for animals like sponges. So what I'm thinking of doing is this: Getting some glass cut to split the first chamber in two. The divider would be about 10-12" tall, with a 3" x 2" notch cut out of the top for water to overflow (I have one of those nanocube surface skimmer pieces laying around, I figured I could permanently affix that over this.) The new second chamber will be home to her Vertex IN-100 skimmer. The 3rd chamber will hold the return pump, a Tunze Silence 1073.020 recirculating pump.
The drain is 1", the return is 3/4". Was given flexible hose and rubber tube for drain and return. On the drain, I think I will switch to PVC because I plan to split the drain with a valve so half the flow goes to the refugium and the other half goes to the skimmer. First question: Is there an advantage to using hard PVC on the return instead of the rubber tube?
Next question: is that black box with the sponge going to get rid of the bubbles and not be a problem, Or do I need rip that out and build a bubble trap? Nevermind that it would essentially turn this sump into a $175 20 gallon tank; if that's what we need to do, so be it.
And last, does anyone use float sensors to shut off their pump in case the drain gets clogged and/or the sump runs out of water? I'm thinking of trying a DIY method for that, but I'm wondering what others do here first.
Sorry for the long post, but my research has brought back many conflicting ideas and I'm getting anxious to find the answers so I can get this project done and get some water in that tank finally!
What we have:
She bought the Oceanic Illuminata 57G rimless RR tank setup from AC a few weeks ago. That included (among other things) a Oceanic Model 1 Reef Ready Sump. I'll have to describe it because I don't have a picture right now: it's a 20G high (24"x13"x17" I think). It features a box with a tray on top for filter pads and a large chamber for holding bioballs, with plenty of large slots in the bottom and sides for water to flow through. This contraption takes up about half of the main sump chamber (and there are only two chambers). The 2nd chamber is about 6" wide, and is separated by a black plastic baffle-type thing that's 2" wide and 7" tall with a sponge at the bottom. So I'm figuring the design is water would flow from the drain through the wet/dry and a skimmer in the same chamber, over the baffle, through the sponge, and back up through the return.
My problem:
Of course, this doesn't look good to me. I don't like the bioballs concept, and I want to put in a refugium w/DSB, live rock, and cheato for nitrate export and cultivating natural food that can't be bought for animals like sponges. So what I'm thinking of doing is this: Getting some glass cut to split the first chamber in two. The divider would be about 10-12" tall, with a 3" x 2" notch cut out of the top for water to overflow (I have one of those nanocube surface skimmer pieces laying around, I figured I could permanently affix that over this.) The new second chamber will be home to her Vertex IN-100 skimmer. The 3rd chamber will hold the return pump, a Tunze Silence 1073.020 recirculating pump.
The drain is 1", the return is 3/4". Was given flexible hose and rubber tube for drain and return. On the drain, I think I will switch to PVC because I plan to split the drain with a valve so half the flow goes to the refugium and the other half goes to the skimmer. First question: Is there an advantage to using hard PVC on the return instead of the rubber tube?
Next question: is that black box with the sponge going to get rid of the bubbles and not be a problem, Or do I need rip that out and build a bubble trap? Nevermind that it would essentially turn this sump into a $175 20 gallon tank; if that's what we need to do, so be it.
And last, does anyone use float sensors to shut off their pump in case the drain gets clogged and/or the sump runs out of water? I'm thinking of trying a DIY method for that, but I'm wondering what others do here first.
Sorry for the long post, but my research has brought back many conflicting ideas and I'm getting anxious to find the answers so I can get this project done and get some water in that tank finally!
