Sump question

[alddb]

I used to have 2 clowns and a damsel in my first section of sump with socks. We decided to change the sump and removed the socks. Made the pipes longer. Placed egg crate over the pipes. Then placed
protein skimmer with a CO2 scrubber on the egg crate with some rocks. The next section (small) holds the heater. Then section after filter floss. The second larger section that we once used for the protein skimmer now has a sand bed, a grow bulb and some rock. Chamber after has a gfo reactor. Then more filter floss. Final chamber is the return pump. I have egg crate in the sections around middle chamber to avoid casualties.

we tried cheato. It eventually sunk. Not died but sunk. Tried a lobster, died in two days. I put an injured fish in there, died in 3.

there is a lot of movement in there. But noticed the other day a surface film. Could that be why we can’t keep anything alive in there? We figured the first chamber the surface constant had movement with the socks but this second chamber the surface just does not move. You can see below it though the fast movement.

we want to put more cheato in (try again) and possible a few crabs but hesitant until we figure out what is causing our issue here. The three fish in first chamber lived happy for years. We moved them to another tank now. I change the filter floss every other day unless it looks bad, sooner.

any suggestions?

 

[Troylee]

The surface film is mostly likely a bacterial bloom.. are you carbon dosing or anything? Not sure why you wanna put animals in your sump but hey lol… chateo is weird I’ve never had great luck with it most likely cause I run a low nutrient system.. a small powerhead to break the surface of the water where the film is will help with that.. chateo needs higher nutrients and a good light.

 

[srobertb]

A pic of your sump may help. What is your goal here with the chaeto? How big is the section for Chaeto compared to your tank? Chaeto doesn’t have to float or tumble.

Chaeto is a living thing that requires nutrients to grow. If it’s melting, typically it doesn’t have what it needs. Honestly I would choose between the GFO and Chaeto as I am of the belief that GFO is only needed without an appropriately sized refugium. I’m a refugium guy though so someone else will disagree.

No I don’t think a film is your problem. Although somewhat unfortunate.

Based on very limited information- what is the water temp of that particular chamber? Could it be too hot? Is there LR and sand? Where did it come from? I once saw a 2’ Eunice worm live and hide quite happily in a 29g Biocube and live off my inverts, fish, and coral for over a year. A lot of micro bubbles coming off the skimmer? Pics pics pics.

 

[Seansea]

Why are non injured fish in your sump but not in your main display? Your sump is the spot to clean the water not fowl it up with more fish waste but to each their own. How are the things in your main display? Corals closed up? Fish breathing heavy and acting erratic?

Chaeto is weird. Sometimes it just takes off and sometimes it croaks. It def needs some phos and nitrates to get it going as well as a light that is heavy in the yellow scale. And the shallower the compartment they are in the better. As far as the other stuffing dying down there im guessing the lobster didnt get enough food and the injured fish probably was on its way out. ITs unusual for stuff to die in sump and the main display to not be having problems.

 

[alddb]

The surface film is mostly likely a bacterial bloom.. are you carbon dosing or anything? Not sure why you wanna put animals in your sump but hey lol… chateo is weird I’ve never had great luck with it most likely cause I run a low nutrient system.. a small powerhead to break the surface of the water where the film is will help with that.. chateo needs higher nutrients and a good light.

I use nopox a few times a week. There is gfo and carbon in reactor. I go slow and put in the return sump area.

We had the 3 fish in there to eat any left over food that washed through. It was great, kids knew they could go in and pet them they were so friendly. They are now moved to my daughters 50 gallon tank.

we wanted to add cheato to help with nitrates. I can’t get them below 50. I nopox for months now to no results. Got the reactor that seen it hold at 50 instead of going 100 to 50 back to 100 back to 50.

Just wanted to try cheato again… got a grow bulb (2500k) and figured a few crabs to eat anything we miss. Plus it’s an area we can put an injured fish to watch more closely. In the DT it’s harder with more hiding areas, more fish plus can’t reach bottom (arm not long enough). Plus less competition with food if injured by using the sump.

 

[alddb]

Why are non injured fish in your sump but not in your main display? Your sump is the spot to clean the water not fowl it up with more fish waste but to each their own. How are the things in your main display? Corals closed up? Fish breathing heavy and acting erratic?

Chaeto is weird. Sometimes it just takes off and sometimes it croaks. It def needs some phos and nitrates to get it going as well as a light that is heavy in the yellow scale. And the shallower the compartment they are in the better. As far as the other stuffing dying down there im guessing the lobster didnt get enough food and the injured fish probably was on its way out. ITs unusual for stuff to die in sump and the main display to not be having problems.

No corals in tank. Predatory. All my fish I’ve had for years. No issues with any. I have not added anything new. They all eat like pigs.

 

[Mperry622]

nopox is only effective if your skimming is top notch in my experience... Have to export what it creates

 

[alddb]

Water a bit low (evap) and I know skimmer needs cleaning. I do this every few days. Last photo with reactor you can see some surface film. It’s gross. Constantly removing it. The middle chamber with rock is where we want cheato and crabs/ injured fish.
Got filter fiber before that chamber and after that chamber that is changed out every other day.

 

[Troylee]

Water a bit low (evap) and I know skimmer needs cleaning. I do this every few days. Last photo with reactor you can see some surface film. It’s gross. Constantly removing it. The middle chamber with rock is where we want cheato and crabs/ injured fish.
Got filter fiber before that chamber and after that chamber that is changed out every other day.

I’d say the nopox is causing your bacteria film/slime… your skimmer isn’t pulling it out… need some agitation to break it up.. also a fish only with 50 nitrates isn’t bad! I wouldn’t even test them to be honest in a fish only system lol.. if it was a reef that’s a different story.

 

[srobertb]

Water a bit low (evap) and I know skimmer needs cleaning. I do this every few days. Last photo with reactor you can see some surface film. It’s gross. Constantly removing it. The middle chamber with rock is where we want cheato and crabs/ injured fish.
Got filter fiber before that chamber and after that chamber that is changed out every other day.

Looks fine. A bit cramped but fine. You’re using nopox and GFO so I can’t imagine Chaeto will grow for you. Back in the day when people were using cheap grow lights for chaeto we also had large amounts of Nitrates and Phosphates. Nowadays chaeto needs more love and light- some people even dose things to keep it alive and functioning.
It’s a FOWLR. I’m not sure why you need all that dosing stuff but I don’t know your life. If it were me I’d get a strong grow light, some Chaeto, and ditch all the consumables.

for what it’s worth- I have known lots of people who keep picked on fish, gorilla crabs/hitchhikers, even pipefish in their refugium chamber.

 

[Seansea]

That film to me just looks like an algae growing on surface of water. Actually prob not a bad thing but prob blocking light that was getting to your chaeto. Can you actually remove it with a net of some type?

For a fish only tank i would highly suggest a algae scrubber for phos and nitrate removal. Chaeto will have a hard time keeping up with the output waste of hogs like triggers, puffers and groupers. Hair algae soaks that stuff up like a sponge.

 

[alddb]

I’d say the nopox is causing your bacteria film/slime… your skimmer isn’t pulling it out… need some agitation to break it up.. also a fish only with 50 nitrates isn’t bad! I wouldn’t even test them to be honest in a fish only system lol.. if it was a reef that’s a different story.

We keep playing with thoughts of some leather corals to bring life to the boring rock but haven’t taken the plunge.

 

[alddb]

Looks fine. A bit cramped but fine. You’re using nopox and GFO so I can’t imagine Chaeto will grow for you. Back in the day when people were using cheap grow lights for chaeto we also had large amounts of Nitrates and Phosphates. Nowadays chaeto needs more love and light- some people even dose things to keep it alive and functioning.
It’s a FOWLR. I’m not sure why you need all that dosing stuff but I don’t know your life. If it were me I’d get a strong grow light, some Chaeto, and ditch all the consumables.

for what it’s worth- I have known lots of people who keep picked on fish, gorilla crabs/hitchhikers, even pipefish in their refugium chamber.

My phosphates were at one point beyond the color chart. The nitrates higher than 100. We had added that reactor and came down to 50 nitrates and .5 phosphate.
We just wanted some plant life and make it look nice. Read it can help lower our numbers even more.

 

[alddb]

That film to me just looks like an algae growing on surface of water. Actually prob not a bad thing but prob blocking light that was getting to your chaeto. Can you actually remove it with a net of some type?

For a fish only tank i would highly suggest an algae scrubber for phos and nitrate removal. Chaeto will have a hard time keeping up with the output waste of hogs like triggers, puffers and groupers. Hair algae soaks that stuff up like a sponge.

I have been removing daily by net. I was just thinking maybe this is why we can’t keep anything alive in that middle chamber. When water level is right, that film is over the middle to last chamber. The top just does not move. Just sits. But you can see the water under moving. We weee thinking without the top being broken up, the oxygen was being depleted

 

[Seansea]

I have been removing daily by net. I was just thinking maybe this is why we can’t keep anything alive in that middle chamber. When water level is right, that film is over the middle to last chamber. The top just does not move. Just sits. But you can see the water under moving. We weee thinking without the top being broken up, the oxygen was being depleted

Bingo. With that light on and all that nutrients sitting on the surface that algae is loving life. Need to get that stuff to sit in last chamber so get the last chamber lower than middle some how. Otherwise everything under neath is smothered.

 

[Troylee]

I have been removing daily by net. I was just thinking maybe this is why we can’t keep anything alive in that middle chamber. When water level is right, that film is over the middle to last chamber. The top just does not move. Just sits. But you can see the water under moving. We weee thinking without the top being broken up, the oxygen was being depleted

That’s exactly what happens with a bacteria bloom! Your o2 level drop.. bacteria will colonize anywhere it wants and normally in a sump.. my buddies tank it decides to do it on a mp40 in between cycles of the pump going on and off! It looks like an automatic feeder shooting out mysis haha! How often does your skimmer fill? Skin mate looks light colored fwiw…

 

[srobertb]

My phosphates were at one point beyond the color chart. The nitrates higher than 100. We had added that reactor and came down to 50 nitrates and .5 phosphate.
We just wanted some plant life and make it look nice. Read it can help lower our numbers even more.

Chaeto requires phosphates, nitrates, and a fair amount of trace elements to grow. Consider dosing directly some chaeto-grow if you really want it. Like I said, back in my day we were fighting nutrients and throwing a ball of chaeto and a $5 clamp on light would do the trick. Now you have more tools at your disposal…which you are using.

There are prettier macroalgaes if you’re going to put in that much effort. You could take some dragons breath (or flame algae or whatever) and rubber band it to a small rock and place it in your display assuming you have moderate lighting. As it grows the rubber band will disappear and you’ll get some plant life.

 

[alddb]

Bingo. With that light on and all that nutrients sitting on the surface that algae is loving life. Need to get that stuff to sit in last chamber so get the last chamber lower than middle some how. Otherwise everything under neath is smothered.

Would a bubble wand work to keep surface moving and broken up? Or a power head pointed to direction of last chamber?

 

[Seansea]

It might help move that nutrient scum line to the corner of that chamber away from the light so the algae cant just sit on it and grow. But you really want it out of your fuge chamber if possible and in your return chamber

 

[alddb]

It might help move that nutrient scum line to the corner of that chamber away from the light so the algae cant just sit on it and grow. But you really want it out of your fuge chamber if possible and in your return chamber

I can add a Powerhead. Point it towards to return pump breaking the water surface. I just not sure if that’s the way to go or adding air stone is better