bought a used tank just had some questions

[davis101]

i just recently bought a 175gallon that uses overflows and a sump, just curious as to how it works and the tank was previously set up for sw wondering if overflows are ok for fw?

 

[sick_lid]

Sump systems are great for freshwater, can hold a great amount of beneficial bacteria. Long story short, the water is drawn into the overflow boxes, siphoned through the u-tubes, and carried down into the sump. The water will pass through the first side of sump, which is going to be filled with certain media to give a home for the bacteria, travel through it and on the other side there will be a pump that returns the water back to the tank.

Just make sure to clean everything up real well from the previous saltwater setup.

 

[nugpuffer]

If you want to squeeze out some additional efficiency from the sump, you could easily modify it into a wet/dry trickle filter system. Just browse around in the DIY sub-forum for plans.

 

[davis101]

hey thanks alot guys, cleanin that thing was a full 12 hour day lol there was a lot of dead coral. Will the overflows start syphoning by themselves or do i have to get them started? and i have to fill the sump up with water before i start everything up right?

 

[sick_lid]

hey thanks alot guys, cleanin that thing was a full 12 hour day lol there was a lot of dead coral. Will the overflows start syphoning by themselves or do i have to get them started? and i have to fill the sump up with water before i start everything up right?

They make something that will siphon it for you, but for cheaper, you can just get a couple feet of airline tubing, stuff it in the back of the u-tube to the top, and siphon till it starts going, slowly removing it as the water gets closer. When the sump fills up to above the pump, turn the pump on.

 

[davis101]

what exactly is the utube? lol i got the plumbing in peices and im missing a few so i have to figure out how to build it too.

 

[sick_lid]

Does yours have the overflow box built into the tank, with plumbed fittings at the bottom, or is it a seperate plastic box that hangs over the top of the tank with tubes running down?

 

[davis101]

it has two overflow boxes built in, they have two hoses in each a return which i beleive would be the solid tubing and the tubing to drain into the sump which are supposed to be flexible? then there are two pumps to go back up to the tank

 

[davis101]

is it ok if there is still a small amount of salt on the insides of the overflow boxes? it was pretty hard to get it all

 

[sick_lid]

Then dis-regard my u-tube remark.. Your water will just drain into the overflow boxes, and run down into the sump. Did it come with a pump in the sump?

Yeah a little bit of salt residue leftover isn't going to hurt anything, I know how that can be a pain to scrape off!