720 gallon need SUMP advice?

[amazontank]

720 gallon need SUMP advice? I have a 60 gallon sump and want to know what to put in it. I have a 50 gallon center over flow also I was thinking add some media in there?

Seachem Matrix
Chem Stars
Eheim substrate
Bio sponges/balls/spheres

I been looking at those 4 things does anybody have any other ideas or how to place them?


I have 100 gallons of bio balls but am hearing they are not as good as the other stuff?

 

[thechief]

I would say you should get a bigger sump for a 720 gallon I have a 120 gallon sump for sale if your interested idk where your located tho but if your gunna go with the 60 I would say go with bio balls and a bunch of filter pads with keep.it clear and a filter sock or two

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[David R]

I'd agree 60g isn't going to be big enough for a 720g, especially if it has a big footprint. You're likely to end up overflowing the sump when the pump switches off.

 

[Albertan]

Another option would be to run a 60g sump for biologic filtration in conjunction with a closed loop filtration system to handle the mechanical filtration. Try a search for glass bead filters here.

 

[DIDYSIS]

As most have said run at least a 72x18x24 sump. Or drill and have 2 smaller tanks connected together.

As for media ideas.

Cost- free I had a ton of bio balls. I started my sump with a bag of bio balls (about 30 gallons worth) just thrown in the sump. Worked just fine and my water tests were always perfect but nitrates were high with all my fish.
Just to try I adeed a drip plate on top of the bag of bioballs to try adding to it and see if that might lower nitrates adding allot of oxygen to the mix.
Cost - 60.00 Then I also added some pond matrix to my setup just to make sure I was well covered for filtration if needed 8 liters worth.
Later I removed all the bio balls because overtime they build up with some gunk. And took up allot of room.
Cost- extra large air pump 150.00 pvc air bubbler and media about 75.00. Then I decided to try for fun a moving bed reactor as people talk allot about loving them and they self clean always and will never need cleaning. So I got 2 cubic feet of media and ordered a large air pump to make it all work.

Overall experience- All three methods have given me the same reading of zero ammonia stable PH and zero nitrites and of course high nitrates from all the fish load.
To fix that I added a continuous drip system as nothing else will fix high nitrates on a large system with large fish.
My conclusion; the moving bed filter/ media reactor is nice that little junk never builds up in my system ever and ill never need to clean it. With any of the others I personally liked to try to clean them a little ever few months. As little junk builds up and then of you move anything poof a ton of crap goes to your display tank and has to all be filtered out and cleaned. But also for the money and extra wattage that I have to pay monthly this final setup costs more than any of the others and works just as good with my experience. Do I think the reactor setup is super nice and probably has more bio space and better bio growing and rubbing off and re growing constantly but is the cost and less work worth it? My friend is running a reactor setup on a large system with far less media with really good results but im running 3x the water and at least 5x the fish currently. Hope this information helps and pm me if you want more info or media im using.

Sent from Note 2 mini computer

 

[jsodwi]

Yup definitely a bigger sump. 60g will not cut it. I must have 60g in bioballs alone and another 20g in matrix and other ceramic media. You need at least 125g I would say

 

[amazontank]

I would say you should get a bigger sump for a 720 gallon I have a 120 gallon sump for sale if your interested idk where your located tho but if your gunna go with the 60 I would say go with bio balls and a bunch of filter pads with keep.it clear and a filter sock or two

Sent from my Desire HD using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

I'd agree 60g isn't going to be big enough for a 720g, especially if it has a big footprint. You're likely to end up overflowing the sump when the pump switches off.

Another option would be to run a 60g sump for biologic filtration in conjunction with a closed loop filtration system to handle the mechanical filtration. Try a search for glass bead filters here.

Yup definitely a bigger sump. 60g will not cut it. I must have 60g in bioballs alone and another 20g in matrix and other ceramic media. You need at least 125g I would say

As most have said run at least a 72x18x24 sump. Or drill and have 2 smaller tanks connected together.

As for media ideas.

Cost- free I had a ton of bio balls. I started my sump with a bag of bio balls (about 30 gallons worth) just thrown in the sump. Worked just fine and my water tests were always perfect but nitrates were high with all my fish.
Just to try I adeed a drip plate on top of the bag of bioballs to try adding to it and see if that might lower nitrates adding allot of oxygen to the mix.
Cost - 60.00 Then I also added some pond matrix to my setup just to make sure I was well covered for filtration if needed 8 liters worth.
Later I removed all the bio balls because overtime they build up with some gunk. And took up allot of room.
Cost- extra large air pump 150.00 pvc air bubbler and media about 75.00. Then I decided to try for fun a moving bed reactor as people talk allot about loving them and they self clean always and will never need cleaning. So I got 2 cubic feet of media and ordered a large air pump to make it all work.

Overall experience- All three methods have given me the same reading of zero ammonia stable PH and zero nitrites and of course high nitrates from all the fish load.
To fix that I added a continuous drip system as nothing else will fix high nitrates on a large system with large fish.
My conclusion; the moving bed filter/ media reactor is nice that little junk never builds up in my system ever and ill never need to clean it. With any of the others I personally liked to try to clean them a little ever few months. As little junk builds up and then of you move anything poof a ton of crap goes to your display tank and has to all be filtered out and cleaned. But also for the money and extra wattage that I have to pay monthly this final setup costs more than any of the others and works just as good with my experience. Do I think the reactor setup is super nice and probably has more bio space and better bio growing and rubbing off and re growing constantly but is the cost and less work worth it? My friend is running a reactor setup on a large system with far less media with really good results but im running 3x the water and at least 5x the fish currently. Hope this information helps and pm me if you want more info or media im using.

Sent from Note 2 mini computer

Looks like the sump is 100 gallons. 42x24x24! Just looked small to me under the big tank. I also have another 30 gallons in the tower to add some media?

Awesome info on the media bro!

Anybody know what these are. I just bought them on Ebay as ceramic bio block used in a pond sump many years ago.

 

[Squirtle919]

ah we have those big blocks here, the saltwater guys use them from time to time. supposed to be amazing but you should sit them on legs so they dont end up collecting crap under them.

I would also be using a bigger sump, I do have a 3fter on my 550g and its not very fun, I have to constantly fill it up.

Id personally aim for a 7ft sump and get quite a few sponges and jap matt in there. never hurts having more water also

 

[amazontank]

ah we have those big blocks here, the saltwater guys use them from time to time. supposed to be amazing but you should sit them on legs so they dont end up collecting crap under them.

I would also be using a bigger sump, I do have a 3fter on my 550g and its not very fun, I have to constantly fill it up.

Id personally aim for a 7ft sump and get quite a few sponges and jap matt in there. never hurts having more water also

Thanks bro just researched that jab matt it looks cool. I can't fit another sump on this tank at this time. The media area is exactly 60 gallons. I am hoping the way I got it set up with the more expensive media with more surface area It will be cool. I been looking into investing in more of these bio blocks,




I will only have 1 Armatus in the tank and can throw on a couple eheim 2229 filters on the tank for additional stuff.