mkarston
New member
I have a 210 gal Reef with about 300lbs of live rock, and currently have the following sump / fuge setup:
This design, as I've come too realize, is flawed in the following ways:
1.Water drains from the left side directly into the fuge. This causes the fuge to become dirty quickly as detritus settles freely without filtration.
2.The small filter pad above the bio-balls and between baffles are not enough. If I don't change them every 2 days they become saturated and just return the particles back into the tank.
3.Microbubbles. With my current design and only having a 2 baffle setup spaced only about 1.5†apart, microbubles still find there way easily from the Protein Skimmer back to the tank.
4.Return chamber is much too small. Given the water volume and lighting, my tank evaporates around 3 gals of water a day. With a return chamber this small it is very difficult to keep the water in its optimal region.
5.My current skimmer is much to small for my display, and this sump doesn't really leave me any room to upgrade.
I am thinking about changing all of this and redesigning it using a single 75 gal tank:
Some general comments I already have with this design are:
1.Water from both overflows will drain to a filter sock on the right side of the sump, and work its way down to the return chamber at the left side of the sump.
2.I will have to put my current Skimmer up on a 8†shelf so that it is only in about 8†of water
3.I am not sure I need to put a partition up between the filter sock
and the skimmer (hence the dotted line).
4.I am not sure if this will be too much flow through my fuge, and what the affects of this will be. This is something my previous design gave me control over.
5.I am not sure if its fine to have fully skimmed water go into the fuge.
6.I am not sure if its fine to have un-filtered water travel directly from fuge back into the tank.
Thanks and I look forward to all your good feedback!
Craig
This design, as I've come too realize, is flawed in the following ways:
1.Water drains from the left side directly into the fuge. This causes the fuge to become dirty quickly as detritus settles freely without filtration.
2.The small filter pad above the bio-balls and between baffles are not enough. If I don't change them every 2 days they become saturated and just return the particles back into the tank.
3.Microbubbles. With my current design and only having a 2 baffle setup spaced only about 1.5†apart, microbubles still find there way easily from the Protein Skimmer back to the tank.
4.Return chamber is much too small. Given the water volume and lighting, my tank evaporates around 3 gals of water a day. With a return chamber this small it is very difficult to keep the water in its optimal region.
5.My current skimmer is much to small for my display, and this sump doesn't really leave me any room to upgrade.
I am thinking about changing all of this and redesigning it using a single 75 gal tank:
Some general comments I already have with this design are:
1.Water from both overflows will drain to a filter sock on the right side of the sump, and work its way down to the return chamber at the left side of the sump.
2.I will have to put my current Skimmer up on a 8†shelf so that it is only in about 8†of water
3.I am not sure I need to put a partition up between the filter sock
and the skimmer (hence the dotted line).
4.I am not sure if this will be too much flow through my fuge, and what the affects of this will be. This is something my previous design gave me control over.
5.I am not sure if its fine to have fully skimmed water go into the fuge.
6.I am not sure if its fine to have un-filtered water travel directly from fuge back into the tank.
Thanks and I look forward to all your good feedback!
Craig
