400g Systems - Looking for Input

[dr exum]

Buddy is doing the sumps now -

they were supposed to be 60”x24”x20” seems they are 18” high - ?

moving on - it seems i’ve got 30” of pool area with nothing- seems waste of space to me - i did not sadly see a sketch before inception....

ideas on what to do what this space? ideally would have been full of bio balls and pre filter -

pump is L2 -

2 - 1.5” main drains / 1 emergency drain - bulkhead at 9” for overflow drain for drip -

suppose bio rings in bags -

thanks all !

 

[dr exum]

couple more pics -

i feel like bio balls should have been twice as many....

maybe pothos? i think the vacant space is 30” x 24” x9” high (water level)

 

[TheWolfman]

Id throw 15 pounds of ceramic media in there and call it a day. Could even use some cycled media from the 600 in there. I like the aqua neat bio bags on Amazon.

 

[twentyleagues]

Any media will be good. Or if fish are not plant friendly maybe a sort of fresh water refugium? Pothos, lily of the valley or some other marginal/floating plants. Media bags would make rinsing easier.

 

[dr exum]

Id throw 15 pounds of ceramic media in there and call it a day. Could even use some cycled media from the 600 in there. I like the aqua neat bio bags on Amazon.

i’ve got some in my other sump that i’ve had seeding in there for few weeks -

ceramic - that’s what i was thinking - just more 5# bags....

- twenty - floating plants i like ?

i thought i read on here the amount of plants to lower nitrates would be a lot... however my tanks upstairs have pothos and are heavily planted have the least nitrates....

thanks for ideas fells!

 

[twentyleagues]

Terrestrail plants take the co2 out of the air easier then submerged plants take it out of water. They there for grow quicker and also there for use more nitrate/ammonia for energy and cell production. You need far less plants like those to produce results. Take my pond for example lots of marginal plants. After about 3 weeks the nitrate levels are around 40ppm. Still higher then some would like but in the grand scheme of things far better then some. A 200g w/c every month is much easier then weekly. If I go biweekly it's less then 20ppm.

 

[ragin_cajun]

You could drip fresh water in the sump instead of doing water changes.

 

[dr exum]

You could drip fresh water in the sump instead of doing water changes.

on it -

 

[ragin_cajun]

Bio balls are gonna be loud, aren't they?

 

[dr exum]

Bio balls are gonna be loud, aren't they?

it’s not bad in current set up - herbie -

it’s actually silent - unless i have air going -