new 120 setup

[deanclark84]

so my dad came through in a big way... he did a little spring cleaning and gave me two 150 watt MH lights with their own ballasts, and this dirty old sump he had sitting in his shed with some other stuff he had gotten from walmart when they stopped carrying fish. turns out, it was the entire filtration system for walmarts fish wall... i've got a iwaki (sp) pump that is rated at 25.6 gallons a minute (slightly more than 1500 an hour), the biggest biowheel I've ever seen by marineland built into the sump with some trays for media, a huge U.V. sterilizer, and a 1000 watt heater... the plumbing is all in tact and in great shape and with a few cuts and slight modifications my plumbing will perfectly fit into the new filtration, I plan on moving my skimmer into the sump, I think it's a coralife 210 super skimmer. I need a little guidance though, the 2 trays under the bio wheel are obviously for carbon or ammo chips but would I be better off with more bio media or some mixure, and can I fill the rest of my sump with live rock if I have no light on it?

 

[nonstophoops]

so my dad came through in a big way... he did a little spring cleaning and gave me two 150 watt MH lights with their own ballasts, and this dirty old sump he had sitting in his shed with some other stuff he had gotten from walmart when they stopped carrying fish. turns out, it was the entire filtration system for walmarts fish wall... i've got a iwaki (sp) pump that is rated at 25.6 gallons a minute (slightly more than 1500 an hour), the biggest biowheel I've ever seen by marineland built into the sump with some trays for media, a huge U.V. sterilizer, and a 1000 watt heater... the plumbing is all in tact and in great shape and with a few cuts and slight modifications my plumbing will perfectly fit into the new filtration, I plan on moving my skimmer into the sump, I think it's a coralife 210 super skimmer. I need a little guidance though, the 2 trays under the bio wheel are obviously for carbon or ammo chips but would I be better off with more bio media or some mixure, and can I fill the rest of my sump with live rock if I have no light on it?

I know exactly the filtration unit you have and have some experience with it. The sterilizer will most likely need a new bulb. UV bulbs only last up to 6 months or so.

The trays are under the biowheel? They should be above, thus filtering the big particles before running over the biowheel. I would put in carbon or some other filter media into that spot with a filter pad first.

Putting some live rock in the sump is a good idea. It does not need a light at all to colonize with bacteria and function as a great filtration device.

 

[deanclark84]

awesome... and you are correct the trays are above the biowheel, the set up came with a brand new uv bulb, and that sounds good with the carbon... I've never set up a tank without it but I figured I'ld see what people thought

 

[FLESHY]

+1 to what dustin has said...the only thing I would do differently is just putting dry rock into your sump. No reason to add anything other than some area to grow good bacteria.