Need help with sump.

[illbethejudge]

I am lost. I bought this today to install on my tank but i have a few questions.
1) both baffles in the middle are the same height, is that the right way?
2)the water comes through the hole without the bulkhead what filters the water before it reaches the bio media.
3) is this a sump or a refugium.
This will be set on a freshwater tank.

Thanks in advance

 

[tlindsey]

I am lost. I bought this today to install on my tank but i have a few questions.
1) both baffles in the middle are the same height, is that the right way?
2)the water comes through the hole without the bulkhead what filters the water before it reaches the bio media.
3) is this a sump or a refugium.
This will be set on a freshwater tank.

Thanks in advance

View attachment 1422504

View attachment 1422505

Nice pickup
Tbh don't know why the baffles are the same height but I think you would have a filter sock connection for the bulkhead.

 

[tlindsey]

Nice pickup
Tbh don't know why the baffles are the same height but I think you would have a filter sock connection for the bulkhead.

That is a sump a refugium will not have baffles from what I've read.

 

[esoxlucius]

In my eyes water from the display tank would flow down into the sump via gravity into the right hand chamber as we look at it, (you'd have your mechanical here, whether it's a filter sock or layered sponges etc). Then the filtered water would go UNDER that first baffle on the right into your middle chamber full of those plastic bio balls.

The water would filter through the bio balls exiting the middle chamber OVER the top of the next baffle into that small narrow chamber with the egg crate. I'd place a wad of filter floss on top of the egg crate to really polish your water before it exits though the egg crate and into that last compartment, where your pump returns the water to your display tank.

That's how it works in my eyes...BUT...that first baffle on the right that the water should flow under looks like it goes all the way to the base of the tank....no gap!!!!

It takes a bit to baffle me but that baffle's got me baffled! Lol.

 

[illbethejudge]

I am baffled as well. Lolrotf!
Well what it was explained to me is that water goes in through the whole in the right side and then fills the first chamber and that water moves to the second one where you will have all the media and after y will fall in the third chamber where you will have filter floss and a sponge and the return pump but i filled it with water last night and water fills the first and second chamber which makes no sense to me.

 

[esoxlucius]

I am baffled as well. Lolrotf!
Well what it was explained to me is that water goes in through the whole in the right side and then fills the first chamber and that water moves to the second one where you will have all the media and after y will fall in the third chamber where you will have filter floss and a sponge and the return pump but i filled it with water last night and water fills the first and second chamber which makes no sense to me.

Oh it'll work like that, no problem. But the water entering from the top and then exiting from the top is very bad in my eyes. The water will take the easiest route over the surface and not get fully processed effectively by that chamber full of bio balls. In effect that middle chamber will almost become stagnant apart from surface flow.

I'd seriously think about taking that baffle out and raising it by about an inch. That way the water entering from the bottom, and exiting through the top gives it a diagonal route if you will through your bio balls.

That'll give you the best chance of optimum bio filtration.

 

[illbethejudge]

Oh it'll work like that, no problem. But the water entering from the top and then exiting from the top is very bad in my eyes. The water will take the easiest route over the surface and not get fully processed effectively by that chamber full of bio balls. In effect that middle chamber will almost become stagnant apart from surface flow.

I'd seriously think about taking that baffle out and raising it by about an inch. That way the water entering from the bottom, and exiting through the top gives it a diagonal route if you will through your bio balls.

That'll give you the best chance of optimum bio filtration.

How would you filter the water before going to the bio balls?

 

[esoxlucius]

How would you filter the water before going to the bio balls?

There's loads of ways, it just comes down to personal preference, and what's easiest to maintain. Below is a picture of my mech side. The water is gravity fed into that bucket, which sits on egg crate on plastic pipe. The bucket is full of sponge and floss layers. The water exits the bucket via loads of small holes in the bottom. You can see my baffle, which unlike yours, is raised from the bottom of the sump. This allows the filtered water to flow under the baffle and through all my bio media in my mid section. I have bags of ceramic rings, bio balls like you and bits of old off cuts of sponges.

Admittedly it is a bit of a strange set up but it works great. On maintainance day I just lift that bucket out and take it to the kitchen sink where sponges get rinsed under the tap and i toss and replace my filter floss. Then I put the bucket back.

Some people would probably do away with my bucket altogether and just put a single very fine filter sock there.

 

[illbethejudge]

There's loads of ways, it just comes down to personal preference, and what's easiest to maintain. Below is a picture of my mech side. The water is gravity fed into that bucket, which sits on egg crate on plastic pipe. The bucket is full of sponge and floss layers. The water exits the bucket via loads of small holes in the bottom. You can see my baffle, which unlike yours, is raised from the bottom of the sump. This allows the filtered water to flow under the baffle and through all my bio media in my mid section. I have bags of ceramic rings, bio balls like you and bits of old off cuts of sponges.

Admittedly it is a bit of a strange set up but it works great. On maintainance day I just lift that bucket out and take it to the kitchen sink where sponges get rinsed under the tap and i toss and replace my filter floss. Then I put the bucket back.

Some people would probably do away with my bucket altogether and just put a single very fine filter sock there.

View attachment 1422513

What about making the first to the right baffle higher(just adding a piece of plexi)and putting a filter sock?

 

[esoxlucius]

What about making the first to the right baffle higher(just adding a piece of plexi)and putting a filter sock?

If you look at my rather crude drawing below of a very basic three chamber sump, which is what yours is, you can see how crucial the gap under the first baffle is. It's main function is to help direct the flow. You can see that initially water is drawn through the mech side, which is good. Then it is drawn through the bio side, which again is good.

Without that gap the whole dynamic of the flow changes detrimentally in my eyes. I still can't get my head round why it was designed that way. It may have worked for the previous guy but only at a decreased level of efficiency compared to my drawing.

That's how I see it anyway. And just raising the height and putting a filter sock there, as you propose, dosen't do anything to solve the optimum flow issue.