New to Sumps. Have a few questions.

[Fellow]

So I am upgrading/downsizing my current sumpless system to a smaller system with a sump/fuge in the next month or so. I have a few questions that I am a little embarrassed to ask .

I don’t have my new system yet, as it is still being built so I can’t provide any pics but a few details are.

Drilled glass tank corner overflow into a sump with 3 baffles, one section for fuge.

1. Water Changes

- Do I pull water from the DT or the Sump?
- Do I add top off/ new salt water to the DT or Sump
- Do I turn off all the pumps/skimmer while changing water?
- Water Line Calculation for making sure I have enough room in my sump incase the power goes out?

2. Sump sections?

- What order should they go in? (IE Media Bags -> Skimmer -> Fuge)?

I am sure I will have more when I get the system delivered.

Thanks a bunch.

[TheKid]

I can help you with a copule questions, first of all u need to pull wate from the DT or else you'd only be circulating the water in the sump and you'd add top off water to where you want but keeping in Mind the float switch would have to be left in the display tank! Hope this helps and ifnim wrong with anything anyone correct me! :mrgreen:

[delo978]

The setup and maintenace I do is as follows. Shut the pumps off use a turkey baster and blast the sand and LR so you get lots of floating debry then siphon water from the DT. Next is turn on the pumps and add the new water to your sump slowly not to overflow your sump. If you dose do it in the sump (chamber 3) at 10 min intervals to allow for different chemicals to get filtered through. As far as the sump build goes this is my setup, chamber 1 has a drilled tupperware cup with my chemical filtration baggies (carbon,purigen) to force the water through, my thermometer, and my Skimmer. Chamber 2 is my refugium and chamber 3 is my return pump. as for mesurments maybe I fluked out but my first baffle (chamber1) is from the top and I have a 1inch space from the bottom. Baffle 2 has 3/4inch space from the first one has a 2inche space from the top of the tank, and Baffle 3 HAS TO BE at least 1/2 inch shorter than baffle 2 for good flow. I think mine was 9 inches (B2) and 8 inch (B3) this was for a 10gallon sump. I place fliterfloss in between baffles 1 and 2 to prevent micro bubbles and all runs smoothly.

This may not be how everyone builds there sump but it works well and took me a day to build.

Cheers

[saltynuts]

find a reefer near you and ask if you could come over and talk.
and it always pays to see what they are doing. give you ideas on what to do.
and it will help you plan what you are going to have.(i.e) softies lps sps

[Lance]

Figure out how much water will drain from the DT via overflow and/or return line back-siphoning. Make sure your sump can handle this much water without flooding. And vice versa, make sure the DT can handle the amount of water contained in your return section of the sump. This way you are covered for power outages and drain clogs. A 1/4" hole drilled in the return line/lines just below the water line of the DT will act as a siphon break.

[Fellow]

Thanks for the replies. This gives me a bit more information to discuss when they come to set it all up.

[saltynuts]

who,s setting it up!

[Slick Fork]

Definitely go find other people with tanks and have a look and a discussion about what they like and, as importantly, what they don't like about their sump set up.

A very important consideration is the amount of water in the return pump section of the sump. That's where you will see the water level fluctuate due to evaporation, if you don't have enough capacity in there you may lose the ability to leave the tank for a day or two without top-up. Evaporation that may seem insignificant against the size of the system as a whole may be enough to leave your return pump running bone-dry

[intarsiabox]

I like to put a check valve in my return line. You can buy PVC models. This prevents any siphoning when you turn off your return pump or if the power goes out. Very little water will flow back into your sump.

[Fellow]

@SaltyNuts - The folks at Marine Aquaria are building it for me.

Here I thought going to a sump system was going to simplify things for me. :wink:

[Madreefer]

For your sump I would go live rock for the first chamber. Bio balls are crap, fuge in the center and skimmer for your last chamber. Live rock is an awesome filtration system. People will say that having the having the skimmer after the fuge is going to kill the pods. Not true as they still get by it. Hopefully the skimmer won't create micro bubbles. I also do not run filter socks as I think they are a pain in the butt with the constant cleaning of them. As for water changes, turn off your return pump and skimmer of course. Do them from the sump and add your water that way as well. Why stress out your livestock, best to disturb as little as possible. If you have enough flow you should'nt have much detris build up. As for the water circulating in the sump, it all goes to the DT anyways and dosing gets distributed through your DT evenly anyways so just put it in. If your going to run an ATO you want your float switch in the sump, it helps if you keep the proper water level in your sump. I've had some pretty good skimmers and the water level makes a huge difference in a skimmers performance if it is kept at the proper level.

[intarsiabox]

@SaltyNuts - The folks at Marine Aquaria are building it for me.

Here I thought going to a sump system was going to simplify things for me. :wink:

It really is quite simple. Water goes into the sump, filtered in some matter and then pumped back out. As long as you aren't pumping out more water than your overflows can drain there is really very little to go wrong and your DT will look so much nicer without heaters, probes, filters, etc in it to kill the natural look of a reef. You'll be glad you went this route!

[Lance]

It really is quite simple. Water goes into the sump, filtered in some matter and then pumped back out. As long as you aren't pumping out more water than your overflows can drain there is really very little to go wrong and your DT will look so much nicer without heaters, probes, filters, etc in it to kill the natural look of a reef. You'll be glad you went this route!


Absolutely!