Does my sump look like it's working correctly. Pics included.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Mosthated: What do you mean by "if thats a saltwater tank i wouldnt put bioballs in that chamber, the water isnt going to be dripping over them even if you do"

Why wouldn't the water drip over the bio balls if I put a drip plate in?

thanks
 
Also I was going to put a couple of aquaclaer foam block in the bubble trap to stop the bubbles. Is that a good idea?
 
I have another 2" line running to the basement that I 'm not using. Should I give each drain line it's own 2" line to the sump? Would the help to drain more water?

thanks
 
Liquidware: You say "you should have at least 3" of return pipe diameter to be safe"

Since I have both 1" drain lines joining in a 2" line to the sump. Would there be any improvement if I used a 2" line for each drain?

But still, the holes for the drains in the main tank are still 1". So would each drain having their own 2" line to sump increase the amount I water be drained?

Thanks for the help
 
Bioballs are not a great idea for saltwater because your nitrate lvls will sky rocket. Unless you have a endless supply of salt to keep doing water changes bioballs are best for Freshwater setups, you want see a lot of people using wetdry filters on saltwater tanks.. Liverock and deepsand beds work great and macro alages. help suck up nitrate and phosphates.
 
Then why does everyone use bio balls?

So your saying instead of the bio balls in that chamber put a deep sand bed in (how deep),

Also, what's Cheatto? I googled it and can't find it.

Thanks
 
The fact that both drain line meet to drain back down does limits your maximum flow, just think of the speed that is lost, changing direction for the flow slow's it down. If you give each drain it's own line to your sump will remove that problem, but will not make it 'magicaly' work as 2x2" -> 4" of drain. Going to 2 separate line will give you your maximum of 2x 1" 1/4, 2" 1/2 is better than 2", and that's without restrictions.

You dont show your main tank, but if the pipes for your overflow are also 1" 1/4, you could maybe change them to 1.5-2" and use a reducer to go through the 1" 1/4 for the bulkhead, this way it would create more head pressure at the level of the reducer (less air, more water). But it wont really change the generaly aggreed math of 1" = ~600Gal/H, you would just removing restrictions.

Hope that helps...
 
You should let each drain run into the sump seperatly, do not combine them. Your pump should not suck the sump dry if your overfrow into the sump is sufficently sized to meet the pumps ability to return water...in otherwords, it should balance out. Use Bio-Balls in salt water if your going with fish only, otherwise use the berlin method of no bio-balls sump sand or crushed coral bed, theroy being Bio-Balls build up waste and cause high Nitrates. In a fish only system this isnt an issue, it is however a terrible problem in a reef set-up. Other than that, you did a good job, looks good to me, I would recomend makeing sure i had the ability to dump more water into the sump than the pump can discharge by about 1/4% more in than out to account for water flow rate decline due to build-up of crap in the overflow hoses over time. The overflows will only dump as much or a little amount of water the pump pushes to them, so you wont run your tank dry.
 
The sump drains are 1". Should I pipe those into say a 1 1/2" or 2" pipe. (each will get thier own line to the sump) Would that increase the drain or should I stick with the 1" all the way to the sump for each drain?

Thanks
 
go with 2" drains. You can never return too much water to the sump if the overflows are placed high enough but you can return too much water to the tank which you are experimenting right now
 
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