Did I mess up?

[Stege_saurus]

In short, I believe so and im hoping for a remedy. 4 years ago when i set up this reef (120g w/ 20g sump) i may have put the sump in backwards. Ive been frustrated all these years thinking im doing everything wrong, when possibly i set myself up to fail from the start. The only issue is, now that everything is in place, i cant exactly take it out and turn it around. Unfortunately, the person i bought this setup from built the stand with it, and it appears they built the stand around the sump. The only way to get the sump out is to drain the display tank, remove alot of the rock and sand out of it, move the display tank off, and lift the stand up, sliding the sump out from under it. At this point in time, it would be way too cumbersome to try that because i would have to setup a temporary tank and what not to house my inhabitants. The only way i would be interested in doing it is if i managed to get a new stand for it.

Now, onto the dilemma at hand: Attached is a pic of how it is currently setup. There is a filter sock that the IN pipe drains into (forgot to draw it), i ordered some more media for the sump and am trying to figure out how to set it up correct enough to make a difference. I ordered some filter floss, bioballs, and i also have some other sponges, rock, etc on hand that i can use. Feel free to ask. Thanks for looking!

 

[newreef1]

In short, I believe so and im hoping for a remedy. 4 years ago when i set up this reef (120g w/ 20g sump) i may have put the sump in backwards. Ive been frustrated all these years thinking im doing everything wrong, when possibly i set myself up to fail from the start. The only issue is, now that everything is in place, i cant exactly take it out and turn it around. Unfortunately, the person i bought this setup from built the stand with it, and it appears they built the stand around the sump. The only way to get the sump out is to drain the display tank, remove alot of the rock and sand out of it, move the display tank off, and lift the stand up, sliding the sump out from under it. At this point in time, it would be way too cumbersome to try that because i would have to setup a temporary tank and what not to house my inhabitants. The only way i would be interested in doing it is if i managed to get a new stand for it.

Now, onto the dilemma at hand: Attached is a pic of how it is currently setup. There is a filter sock that the IN pipe drains into (forgot to draw it), i ordered some more media for the sump and am trying to figure out how to set it up correct enough to make a difference. I ordered some filter floss, bioballs, and i also have some other sponges, rock, etc on hand that i can use. Feel free to ask. Thanks for looking!

View attachment 3135920

Sorry maybe I don’t get it..but what exactly is the issue? Everyone’s sumps are different and the good part is you can pretty much customize it how you’d like. It seems like your sump goes how many others goes. Water from DT drains into a filter sock (mechanical filtration), in the space between, depending on the size you can add some media for chemical filtration or simply store your biomedia for biological filtration, it then goes to your skimmer, which is good because by then your filter socks will have removed the bigger particulates, then goes into a sponge, to maybe remove any bubbles or “polish” water before it’s pulled out back into the DT. I’m also not sure if my sump is “perfect” but I kinda just copied others here and used media and stuff where they put it. I now realize why people talk about not having enough space because when I put my new bio bricks in, I was just trying to fit things at that point without too worried about exactly where they were as long as they were under water. Maybe a picture would help make things clear so we could better understand what your trying to say?

 

[Stege_saurus]

Sorry maybe I don’t get it..but what exactly is the issue? Everyone’s sumps are different and the good part is you can pretty much customize it how you’d like. It seems like your sump goes how many others goes. Water from DT drains into a filter sock (mechanical filtration), in the space between, depending on the size you can add some media for chemical filtration or simply store your biomedia for biological filtration, it then goes to your skimmer, which is good because by then your filter socks will have removed the bigger particulates, then goes into a sponge, to maybe remove any bubbles or “polish” water before it’s pulled out back into the DT. I’m also not sure if my sump is “perfect” but I kinda just copied others here and used media and stuff where they put it. I now realize why people talk about not having enough space because when I put my new bio bricks in, I was just trying to fit things at that point without too worried about exactly where they were as long as they were under water. Maybe a picture would help make things clear so we could better understand what your trying to say?

Mind the mess, im gonna do a water change tommorow. My issue is im trying to get cleaner water, my city water is horrible and i dont have an RO system so i have to rely on things such as Seachem Prime and others to try to help the situation. Im trying to keep the water cleaner longer than it normally is by adding some forms of filtration that might bolster it. Everytime, about 3-4 days after a water change i start to see algae regrowth and it just overtakes the tank. It looks horrible and is just an unpleasant nuisance. Im hoping by figuring out a way to add more filtration, it may break that up or at least help it to grow on the "algae scrubber" i made. (far left mesh stuff) If you may think the algae scrubber doesnt help, i can always remove that and replace it with something else, i put a union on it for that very purpose. At one time the algae scrubber seemed to do its job, but then the algae decided to go somewhere else...maybe im overthinking this, i had lost hope for awhile but now im trying to regain confidence and get an upper hand.

 

[killer2001]

You are fighting a losing battle if tap water is your only option. No sump configuration will fix that.

 

[newreef1]

Mind the mess, im gonna do a water change tommorow. My issue is im trying to get cleaner water, my city water is horrible and i dont have an RO system so i have to rely on things such as Seachem Prime and others to try to help the situation. Im trying to keep the water cleaner longer than it normally is by adding some forms of filtration that might bolster it. Everytime, about 3-4 days after a water change i start to see algae regrowth and it just overtakes the tank. It looks horrible and is just an unpleasant nuisance. Im hoping by figuring out a way to add more filtration, it may break that up or at least help it to grow on the "algae scrubber" i made. (far left mesh stuff) If you may think the algae scrubber doesnt help, i can always remove that and replace it with something else, i put a union on it for that very purpose. At one time the algae scrubber seemed to do its job, but then the algae decided to go somewhere else...maybe im overthinking this, i had lost hope for awhile but now im trying to regain confidence and get an upper hand.

I think the better option would be to get a RO filter, if you don’t want to hang something up, there’s options where you can attach to your sink and just drain the “dirty” water away. Even if it means to replace filters a bit more often that normal (if your town water is bad). It will save you time and resources in what you’re trying to achieve via the filtration. Filtration is a good idea, I have lots of media pads, purigen, carbon, and now I use chemipure, chemipure blue. But I know even after using them for a few weeks, I have to change the water because it will work for only so long. I think the algae is due to excess amounts of inorganics in the tank, if your already starting with water that has them before you even put them in your tank then even the filtration won’t be able to do alot. I feel this hobby is all about trying, try the RO filter, get a cheap one, if you get results you like then you can get a better one or just stick to the same one. Try new filtration methods, if you get results for long enough and don’t mind it, stick to that.

 

[newreef1]

Mind the mess, im gonna do a water change tommorow. My issue is im trying to get cleaner water, my city water is horrible and i dont have an RO system so i have to rely on things such as Seachem Prime and others to try to help the situation. Im trying to keep the water cleaner longer than it normally is by adding some forms of filtration that might bolster it. Everytime, about 3-4 days after a water change i start to see algae regrowth and it just overtakes the tank. It looks horrible and is just an unpleasant nuisance. Im hoping by figuring out a way to add more filtration, it may break that up or at least help it to grow on the "algae scrubber" i made. (far left mesh stuff) If you may think the algae scrubber doesnt help, i can always remove that and replace it with something else, i put a union on it for that very purpose. At one time the algae scrubber seemed to do its job, but then the algae decided to go somewhere else...maybe im overthinking this, i had lost hope for awhile but now im trying to regain confidence and get an upper hand.

Don’t worry about your sump, it doesn’t seem backwards. Assuming I understand what you mean, if the sump was backwards and the return pump should be where the drain line is, I don’t see how the return would work given that that chamber’s glass partition is higher up so it’s meant to go down along that side not back up if that makes sense. I don’t think you need to stress about the sump, don’t worry, once you find what works for you it’ll make things alot more easier.