Ornate and friend(s)

[Matteus]

Hey FishBeast as I read through your poly thread (very impressive set up and crew you have btw). I saw that you had a lot that you learned about sumps from your build. I wanted to ask some questions to you, J jaws7777 and twentyleagues but I didn’t want to highjack your thread.

I am currently running my first sump system for my 180. My set up is like the ghetto version of yours. Fx5 on the left and sump on the right. Unfortunately my sump is a diy made after a design by a certain someone who can remain somewhat anonymous. Lol. I like the idea but it seems to keep giving me a lot of grief and I don’t think it’s worth it in the end. Non the less I have this set up right now it’s what I’m going to use until I get a new set up. (I hope). This sump has taken me a long time to figure out and every time I think I understand it throws me a curveball.

My current issue is the pump is filling my tank too fast and sucking the sump dry almost every 6-8 hrs. As far as I know nothing has changed or been adjusted. The ball valve from the pump to the tank is set so low it is almost shut entirely. It seems like the overflow is still flowing at typical speed but I may be wrong. A thought that I had is that snails have nested in my overflow and are clogging the flow, so I pulled out a wire and tried clearing out an area that I could access from the top intake but nothing seemed to come free when I did that (had my wife watch for it).

I have been syphoning water from the tank back into my sump every few hrs. This is getting old real fast, I’m just wondering if anyone has any ideas here?

 

[Matteus]

Here’s some photos of the ghetto set up. Lol

 

[Rob909]

As far as ornates with Blue botias, I have my big ornate with a single blue botia. They swim around together a lot of the time and hide in the same piece of driftwood together. Never had any problems between the two and I’ve never noticed any bite marks. I’ve posted this photo in another thread about loaches with ornates so you may have seen it before but it shows the size difference between the two. The loach is on the bottom left corner and you can obviously find the ornate lol.

As far as your sump, I’d recommend getting a larger overflow or putting bigger pipes on the returns to allow water to flow much faster.

 

[twentyleagues]

Its the overflow. Those work for crap unfortunately. They dont keep a constant siphon.

 

[Matteus]

View attachment 1338296 As far as ornates with Blue botias, I have my big ornate with a single blue botia. They swim around together a lot of the time and hide in the same piece of driftwood together. Never had any problems between the two and I’ve never noticed any bite marks. I’ve posted this photo in another thread about loaches with ornates so you may have seen it before but it shows the size difference between the two. The loach is on the bottom left corner and you can obviously find the ornate lol.

As far as your sump, I’d recommend getting a larger overflow or putting bigger pipes on the returns to allow water to flow much faster.

Well that sounds very similar to my situation. How big is your ornate? I find they are always swimming around mosey, and often sleep right on its back. It’s kinda fun to watch. I have just recently been noticing more nips of the fins and tooth marks on the botia bellies.

So are you thinking maybe a 2” overflow pipe?

 

[Matteus]

Its the overflow. Those work for crap unfortunately. They dont keep a constant siphon.

What is a better option? I don’t see drilling as an option either so it would have to be over the side. I inherited this set up from kijiji before I even knew about YouTube videos for fishkeeping. Thank you for your input.

 

[Rob909]

Well that sounds very similar to my situation. How big is your ornate? I find they are always swimming around mosey, and often sleep right on its back. It’s kinda fun to watch. I have just recently been noticing more nips of the fins and tooth marks on the botia bellies.

So are you thinking maybe a 2” overflow pipe?

If I had to guess, it’s over 12” and under 16”. I’m not one to run up with a ruler for the bigger fish lol. I’ll take a measurement one day when he’s close to the glass again.

You running a 1” right now? Bigger is better for overflow plumbing in my opinion. I run a CPR CS150 (1600gph) and those come with a 1 1/2” bulkhead. I scale that flow down, then run my return pump wide open. It will be scaled down with head height and all that other science so I let it run to its full capacity. The overflow will never over-fill my sump because eventually the water level in the tank will drop below the overflow and the flow will stop until the pump can catch up. It’s tuned pretty well so I don’t have that issue anyways.
I do this so that there’s always water in the sump, and you don’t run your return pump dry.

 

[twentyleagues]

I don't really have a "better" option really. I know the eshopps brand is more reliable then the db of diy ones. But ive had those fail also only once in 2 years but it did fail.
https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/p...IUXcpJEdWL8UqTHSyqQHcxgsgQtePxPUaAmHTEALw_wcB
That is the one I had. CPR makes one too as do others.
I dont know I could never get the diy one to work correctly enough for me to trust using it in my house. I tested it for a few days outside. At first it was great and then lost a little and a little more and over about 3 or 4 days was running at about half capacity. The only time the eshopps one failed me was after a day long power outage. That was random because the power had gone out before and it never lost prime but that time it did. It also never did the weird random flow thing I experianced with the diy one.
Or get a big canister filter. But I'd rather have a sump.

 

[FishBeast]

I highly recommend

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Here’s some photos of the ghetto set up. Lol

It might be the overflow. The flow rate can't keep up with the return due to some inherent problem with the design of the DIY system or perhaps even an air leak and/or clog somewhere? Have you considered drilling the back so you can attach a bulkhead and a surface level overflow system? That might be easier to tweak.

 

[Matteus]

I highly recommend

It might be the overflow. The flow rate can't keep up with the return due to some inherent problem with the design of the DIY system or perhaps even an air leak and/or clog somewhere? Have you considered drilling the back so you can attach a bulkhead and a surface level overflow system? That might be easier to tweak.

It’s a pretty old tank so I don’t feel confident drilling a hole. I get that would be the best but I don’t plan on this being my permanent set up. Don’t want to spend too much money until after I move.