Cleaning out my sump

ziguri

ziguri

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I just cleaned my sump out today and pulled out a whole lot of dirt/detritus . This is how my sump used to be set up , it is actually 2 sumps joined together:

Overflow fills first section which has skimmer and ceramic rings.
2nd chamber of first sump = empty
1st chamber of 2nd sump has a sponge.
Return pump in final chamber hooked up to uv, reactor etc

So, I pulled out the ceramic rings and sponge for cleaning today and was wondering if I should put them back or if it would be better to just leave it out? I will be fitting in a 150liter refugium during the week so if I were to put them back if have to reshuffle a few things.

Skimmer is currently running alone in first chamber, if I were to put ceramic rings back it would be in this chamber.
The second chamber which is currently empty would be the only place I could fit the sponge.
I'm going to put a pump in the 3rd chamber , hook it up to reactor and uv, and this pump will pump into refugium .
Refugium will then overflow into 4th and final chamber where return pump will pump straight back into DT.

So basically my questions are:
Should I put back the rings and sponge or are there better alternatives ?
Any suggestions ?

Thx
 
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If still wet. Put 80% back. Each week remove some more until no more. Cannot just rip the heart of filtration out.

If the rings were led to dry out. Then rather leave them out. You already ripped the heart out.

Check you parameters the next couple of weeks. Will depend on number and quality of liverock in your display. Currently you got no biological filtration left in your sump.
 
RiaanP said:
If still wet. Put 80% back. Each week remove some more until no more. Cannot just rip the heart of filtration out.

If the rings were led to dry out. Then rather leave them out. You already ripped the heart out.

Check you parameters the next couple of weeks. Will depend on number and quality of liverock in your display. Currently you got no biological filtration left in your sump.
Click to expand...

Was still wet so I put it back. Will it work putting 2 pumps in different chambers or will it just cause an imbalance ?
 
Looks like it won't work from 2 diff chambers, I'll just run both from last chamber, sponge in 2nd chamber and rings in 3rd chamber, reason why I asked was because I wanted any pods or other creatures from refugium in the future to be safe from the uv sterilizer but I guess they will have a 50-50 chance.

Regarding the rings, can I leave in the 3rd chamber where water is cleaner and rinse once a month or so it would I be better off replacing it with some live rock gradually?

I am also running a canister filter btw, maybe connect the uv sterilizer to the canister instead?
 
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I have modified my final return pump line, it is now pumping straight back into the tank, at a much faster rate than ever before and now there are a whole lot of micro bubbles in the DT . Is this something that will resolve itself with time or is the higher return rate going to cause permanent microbbbles and if so, how can I stop it?
 
The micro bubbles, might be from the waterfall effect into last chamber. The pump pulls in some of the bubbles and creates thousands of small ones. Maybe raise the water level in your last chamber. And turn the pump so that its intake is away from the dividing panel. Rather place it so that the intake is against the outside panel of return chamber. Another solution would be to fit a 90 degree elbow so that the pump pulls water from as low as possible. Like an elephant trunk. Might need to cut the elbow to get it in. If you cut it, leave parts like little legs. To prevent the elbow to suck flat against the bottom panel.
 
Balancing pumps will never work. Even if it is the same pump. A small piece of cheato into the one pump and their delivery ratings differ.

You can keep the ceramic rings. And rinse them once a month. A solution could be to get hold of a small plastic tub, from Plasticland. Those with the slots in them. Put the rings in there and it would be so much easier to pull the basket out once a month than trying to remove each individual ring.

When you clean out that section, switch off your return pump and siphon the chamber clean. See that as your water change. Can use the water you removed to dip and rinse the basket of rings.
 
RiaanP said:
The micro bubbles, might be from the waterfall effect into last chamber. The pump pulls in some of the bubbles and creates thousands of small ones. Maybe raise the water level in your last chamber. And turn the pump so that its intake is away from the dividing panel. Rather place it so that the intake is against the outside panel of return chamber. Another solution would be to fit a 90 degree elbow so that the pump pulls water from as low as possible. Like an elephant trunk. Might need to cut the elbow to get it in. If you cut it, leave parts like little legs. To prevent the elbow to suck flat against the bottom panel.
Click to expand...

I have already placed the intake against the outside panel and water level was as high as it could safely be , with no difference . Not sure what you mean with regards to the elbow . Do you mean connecting an elbow to the intake of the pump ?

Also, should I remove the cover of the intake of the return pump with the sponge or will that just make it worse?

Thanks for your help
 
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RiaanP said:
Balancing pumps will never work. Even if it is the same pump. A small piece of cheato into the one pump and their delivery ratings differ.

You can keep the ceramic rings. And rinse them once a month. A solution could be to get hold of a small plastic tub, from Plasticland. Those with the slots in them. Put the rings in there and it would be so much easier to pull the basket out once a month than trying to remove each individual ring.

When you clean out that section, switch off your return pump and siphon the chamber clean. See that as your water change. Can use the water you removed to dip and rinse the basket of rings.
Click to expand...



Thx will do, was thinking myself of getting a plastic tray to place the rings in, what I did yesterday was turn off the return pump and run a sponge filter for a while to clean the dirt that was floating and it worked well, although it will prob be better to siphon out during water change as u mentioned
 
Fitted in the elbow and looks like it will resolve the problem. Had to leave so will confirm tomorrow when I'm back home, thanks
 
There are still microbbbles, not sure why, I think it also has something do do with the higher return rate . Return is sending in larger bubbles and maybe the wave maker is sucking some of that in and creating more. I can't even put the return line in the water as opposed to a little higher up or else it sucks water from the DT into the sump if the pump were to fail

Update , I modified the return line and moved canister filter inlet away to the other side and it looks much better, still a little bubbles but a big improvement . If it still persist I will move away the wavemaker which is next to the return outlet and see what happens
 
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