Sump redo Suggestions

[nomorenames]

Hi all
looking for ideas on re doing my sump right now I have a 30gal long DIY 3 chamber with 9 inch baffles no filter sock 1st chamber skimmer and power head, 2nd chamber cheteo thin layer of sand and 2 mangroves in a pot,3rd is return, heater and reactor...the problem I have is slow flow in chamber 2 and 3 causing cyno and detritus build up...I purchased a new 30gal long to swap the old one but I am leaning towards keeping cheteo ditching the mangroves and sand maybe using egg crate to keep the cheteo in place and using the power head to keep everything moving toward the return what do you guys think open to other suggestions

 

[jdantunes]

If your are not using any filter pads or socks, it will cause more detritus to settle in your sump. You got a couple of options here; start filtering your drains using socks or pads or drain down your sump as regular maintenance routine and use a shop vac to vacuum all detritus.

If you leave detritus to decompose, it will become a nutrient source where Cyano will thrive.

Also watch for any light spill from the refugium chamber to the rest of the sump. This will also promote algae growth.


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[nomorenames]

If your are not using any filter pads or socks, it will cause more detritus to settle in your sump. You got a couple of options here; start filtering your drains using socks or pads or drain down your sump as regular maintenance routine and use a shop vac to vacuum all detritus.

If you leave detritus to decompose, it will become a nutrient source where Cyano will thrive.

Also watch for any light spill from the refugium chamber to the rest of the sump. This will also promote algae growth.


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all good info thank you ... i kinda screwed up the question in the beginning the new sump will have a filter sock no baffles my dilemma is to keep the cheteo in some sort of egg crate cage with the power head moving water the length of the sump. like you said light spillage is a problem now so i would need a way to address that in the new sump as well

 

[nomorenames]

other option to ditch the cheteo all together

 

[jdantunes]

I'm glad that you are using a mechanical filter in your next sump. No need to exclude the refugium from the design. You just have to reconfigure the sump. I'll give you further advise when I get home from work.

For now, I understand you have a 30 long to work with. What material are you gonna use for the baffle? How much space is available under your tank?


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[jdantunes]

Most common sump design in the market today has the refugium between the skimmer chamber and return. This design does works, but I don't believe that is as effective as having the refugium on the opposite side of the skimmer chamber and the return in the middle. This will give you the best of both worlds:

*Controlling the amount of flow that goes thru the refugium (you can maximize the contact time which I believe is very important)

*And a higher count of pods and other micro fauna that escapes the refugium are then pushed into display area. Which is extremely beneficial for every reef in many aspects.

Look at sump designs by Melev's Reef (Model F) or by Life Reef Systems. Both my favorites designs of all times.


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[Specfishin]

+1 on keeping light spill to minimum. I have corralline growing in skimmer requires monthly cleaning.

Also I agree with the sock. I have 2 dumps from tank, 1 is very little flow which I've placed into refug. Middle chamber. The high flow stays i 1st chamber into sok with skimmer. I also tend to use a small low micron mesh filter for the refug dump. It allows more "food" to my creepy crawlers and pods.

 

[nomorenames]

Here are a couple pics of my current setup the light spill thing gets really messy not sure how to fix that...the mangroves definitely need to go the more I look at it..I think I will hard plumb the new sump with a manifold to save some space...I am still on the fence about my egg crate cheteo cage, no sand just cheteo, light and the power head

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[jdantunes]

Having no mechanical filters and no baffles in the first chamber, will push large and small particles and micro bubbles into your refugium. This will promote hair algae growth and will choke your macro algae.

To cover for light spill into other sump chambers, you can use a couple pieces of black acrylic as or on the baffles.

 

[nomorenames]

There would be a filter sock for mechanical...not sure how black acrylic baffles will cut down on light spill my glass baffles are covered in coralline algae are basically "blacked out" unless you mean shield the other compartments with black acrylic

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[jdantunes]

Ohh. I know that you gonna use a sock, as you mentioned before. I was talking about the trouble you got in your current system.

I used to have the light spill in my sump. I got two pieces of acrylic cut to size, isolate the refugium and I haven't seen algae growth outside of it.



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[nomorenames]

Ohh. I know that you gonna use a sock, as you mentioned before. I was talking about the trouble you got in your current system.

I used to have the light spill in my sump. I got two pieces of acrylic cut to size, isolate the refugium and I haven't seen algae growth outside of it.



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do you have a photo of it

 

[jdantunes]

Sure! Here are a couple of before shots..

This is a Trigger Systems Ruby sump, Refugium chamber is behind the return.

Left side

Months after, I notice algae growth in the return chamber and just a bit of it in my new ATO reservoir, all because of the light spill from the refugium. So, I cut two pieces of black acrylic to black out the spill and solved the issue.

Left side (You can see that I replaced the external reactor with a reservoir)

 

[nomorenames]

Awesome! What size trigger sump /tank do you have

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[jdantunes]

Sump is a Ruby 30 and my display a 75 gallons. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus 160 Xtreme aka Diablo.