New tank with sump.. question

Hey there...

Filter socks are mainly used in the inlet section of the sump. The idea behind this is filter out any large waste particles coming from the display tank down in to the sump..People also put bags of nutrient removal media in there like phosphate removal...

Yes, the fuge or refugium, contains the dsb, live rock rubble and the macro agae..

The bubble trap is simply 3 parts of glass or acrylic, staggered in height, as in the attached picture below...


Water will flow through the above, say right to left...over the lower pain of glass, under the middle and then over the last one and into the return area..The idea being that bubbles will get trapped here and not end up in the return section and go back to the display tank...

In the return section, there is simply your return water pump, submerged usually. This, obviously takes the water that flows through the entire sump and sends it back up the pipe work to the main tank...

Have a view on this page from Melev's Reef which will expalin all the basic concepts of how sumps work and basic designs..

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

One thing to remember with sumps is that there are many many ways to configure a sump, they all work in their given setup and how they are configured is also down to personal preference...

Hope this helps a little...If not, just shout up with any more questions

Niko

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Brilliant thank you so much for the information Niko, that was really helpful and Grins for the link.., I really appreciate your help.. hopefully I am going to see a smaller version of the tank today before we order just so we are totally happy etc.. Then I hope to post a log so you can see it and hopefully you may be able to help us on the way and guide us... thank you again.

Also For this size tank do you recommend two heaters?

ooooh and just another quick (long) question, we are quarantining at the moment due to ick, we've got a tank with just the fish in and the other tank holds the LR, Coral and inverts we are doing this for 8 weeks. We hope to get the new tank in the next two weeks. Now we will need to buy more LR and some base rock and plan on having, Aragonite Live Sand? not crushed coral this time!. We will add this to the new tank and it will run like that for roughly 5/6 weeks.

The plan is to then add our existing LR for 1 week? then add the corals and the inverts and leave for another week. Then would it be ok to add the fish two at a time each week or should they be added quicker or slower?

Thanks again Nicola (neenie)
 
Neenie said:
Brilliant thank you so much for the information Niko, that was really helpful and Grins for the link.., I really appreciate your help.. hopefully I am going to see a smaller version of the tank today before we order just so we are totally happy etc.. Then I hope to post a log so you can see it and hopefully you may be able to help us on the way and guide us... thank you again.

Also For this size tank do you recommend two heaters?

ooooh and just another quick (long) question, we are quarantining at the moment due to ick, we've got a tank with just the fish in and the other tank holds the LR, Coral and inverts we are doing this for 8 weeks. We hope to get the new tank in the next two weeks. Now we will need to buy more LR and some base rock and plan on having, Aragonite Live Sand? not crushed coral this time!. We will add this to the new tank and it will run like that for roughly 5/6 weeks.

The plan is to then add our existing LR for 1 week? then add the corals and the inverts and leave for another week. Then would it be ok to add the fish two at a time each week or should they be added quicker or slower?

Thanks again Nicola (neenie)
Click to expand...

Yes, i would suggest two heaters, this gives better heat flow in the tank and will give you some backup incase one does fail on you...

Yes, aragonite sand will be great for you. Dont buy the live sand version, just normal sugar grain size...The bagged live sand is a waste of money in my opinion...

Dont see any issues at all with the rock, corals and inverts being added as you have suggested. On the fish, it all depends on how stable the new reef is. When your first two fish go in, monitor your test results daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate..If there is near enough no change from normal running of the test results ( ammonia and nitrite are zero and nitrate 10 or below ) for the first two weeks, then stick to your two week addition plan... This will give the system change to adapt to the new bioload and compensate....If there is a good rise in ammonia, then lengthen the gap before new additions..

Niko
 
Right that makes sense.. would you have the two heaters in the sump? or in the main display...

I can see this lot costing us a fortune again LOL. oh the joys of fish keeping, fortunately though we are hoping to trade our Trigon 190 in for a skimmer so that will help...

Thanks again Niko.. really appreciate all your help
 
personally, i would have one in each..hide the one in the display tank behind rock work...I like this approach because if they are both in the sump, and something happens to the sump and all flow stops going to and from the diaplay tank, your keeping some heat in there, where as if they were both in the sump, then you would have no heating medium for that scenario...

Personal preference i suppose there...i like to keep angles covered for any eventualities....

Yes, its expensive, but, its all money very well spent in my opinion...

Good deal

Niko
 
That's great thanks again.. will post pictures as soon as we start..

Can't wait!!!

Nicola
 
Neenie, sounds like you've done excellent preparation. I agree with all that Niko said above. I thought I had done my homework well but you're far ahead where I was when I began.

Aspear, they can be but they're fine if you do maintenance on them.
 
Hi Grins.. yeah I hope so.. we've had our other tank running for 7 months now and just love the hobby, so we had to (HAD TO) upgrade of course.. so we have a bit of experience, but none with a sump of course and the last time we used crushed coral.. but gather that's a no no.. so we want to make sure we set this one up right....

Thanks for your input
 
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