How to do water change with sump?

TomToro

TomToro

The Old Guy
Oct 21, 2006
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Michigan
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This will be my first water change with a sump. Is there an easy way to do it and is there a wrong way? If I remove the water from the refugium part, will I lose a lot of the copepods and small critters? Is there a way to save them?

This is how I think it should go:
Shut off the return pump
Use a powerhead to empty all chambers in the sump
Re-fill all chambers seperately with a pump from the reservoir to avoid a mess in the refugium.

Thanks,
Tom
 
I keep it simple...
I turn off the return pump, siphon water out of the main tank. Then siphon new water into the sump until it's full, turn the return pump back on, and continue siphoning water into the sump until the system level stabilizes and the sump is at the correct level.
 
what FSN said. . .

Except, I'll pump the new water into the main tank, and turn on the return pump when it looks full enough, at which point I'll add water in the return chamber until it looks good.
 
dont you count the water in the sump??? i have a 75g and planning on a 20 gallon sump, i change water for 95 gals??
 
I figure my 50gal sump really holds around 30gal from where the baffles are. The display is a 100 with about 150lbs or more of LR so I displace more water there. I'd guess I have maybe 100gal real volume total after all that and I hope I'm doing about a 33% water change with 30 gallons of new SW.
 
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