Lets talk sumps!

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"I know how water will travel through the foam, I have read that water falls straight through scrubbies and a lot of the surface area is waisted....that's enought to make me pay more for foam."

I thought that was the whole idea with big sumps and high turnover rates.

Efficiency is low so volume needs to be big.

Your sump will probably be so efficient that 75% of the media will be unused...
 
BadOleRoss;3876090; said:
I know how water will travel through the foam, I have read that water falls straight through scrubbies and a lot of the surface area is waisted....that's enought to make me pay more for foam.
Click to expand...

The whole point of a wet dry is that a lot of O2 can get to the media. If you use very small porosity foam, you're drastically reducing the amount of O2 that can interact with the bacteria. It will still filter very well, but it won't really be a wet/dry, and therefore doesn't seem like the most efficient use of the space...

Plus, I find scrubbies work wonderfully for bio filtration. I use them in both of my current sumps, and I've never once had an issue with them. I have a 30g sump using scrubbies filtering a 125g tank with 9 gar, a channel catfish, a datnoid, and several cichlids, and I have yet to see anything to make me change the sump setup.
 
I was giving it some thought last night and I think I am going to stay away from the very fine foam. I will go with the 10 and 20ppi and leave it at that. Doing this also cuts down on the cost of the foam making it cheaper than scrubbies. Back to water flow for just a second, water "reportedly" travel straight through scrubbies waisting a lot of the scrubbieness. Water through the foam spends just a little more time going through using more of the surface area. I have nothing against scrubbies, I have never used them. But, my gut tells me that foam is the way to go. I may be wrong but either way I will let you folks know.
 
"I may be wrong but either way I will let you folks know."

I doubt either method is wrong.

Its just a matter of efficiency and latency.

And this is worth noting again from Conner.

"The whole point of a wet dry is that a lot of O2 can get to the media."
 
Maybe I should just mix the 2, foam and scrubbies! Use the 10ppi foam on top, a layer of scrubbies and finish with the 20ppi foam on the bottom. After reading another post by Conner on another tread about having to change filter socks every other day I am rethinking that as well. Seems like a 10ppi foam coming into the sump, then onto a 20ppi foam, through scrubbies and then a 30ppi foam might be the way. I need to make up my mind and go with it.
Here's a question....how does a 200 micron sock compare with the 10,20 and 30ppi foam? I mean, after a 200 micron sock, is there any point in a 10, 20 ppi hunk of foam as far as mechanical filtration or is it all biological at that point? Did that make sense?
 
im using 50 micron filter socks, and a really coase piece of foam between the fist baffle wall. My water is clear, but the sock gets clogged in about 2-3 days, i think im going to move it up to 100 micron and see if they can last atleast a week without swapping out. I think your foam method may work, but seems like if you ever had to rinse that bottom foam it would be a pita to get to. My alternative to the coarse sponge inbetween the fist baffle will be jap mat when i can get my hands on some,
 
I did some reading around the net and answered my own question. 50 micron socks filter out particles 50 microns and larger. 200 micron filter out 200 microns and larger. So 50s are better but will clog a lot faster. The filter socks I wll be using are the 200s but I am thinking a prefilter might be needed before the prefilter!:D
 
This iswhat I am planning to put at each end of the sump, 2 at each end. I was thinking about adding a prefilter to it but I dont really see a way to do it and include it within the confines of the sump. I am not sure just how fast a 200 micron filter sock with clog up but I guess that depends on fish load, over feeding etc.

filter sock.jpg
 
I had a 200 that size on my 125. clogged every 2 days. I put the 16 inch 100 micron socks on and they last a week. I also have a 25 micron and I put the 100 inside the 25. The 25 doesn't even get too dirty but it polishes the water pretty good.
 
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