New Sump, and general questions

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justinf67

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 24, 2009
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Okay, so for some background, I have a 55 Gallon tank, with african cichlids. I am learning as I go along, but I am not a newbie... I started out with 2 HOB 30-60's, and a light stock of random cichlids. Have learned a good deal, and I decided I wanted to heavily stock the africans. so i decided a sump would be my best bet, so I can have very good filtration. I made one using an old ten gallon, but it was rushed, and not the best of designs. it ended up with lots of sediment floating in the water. I scrapped it, and remade a new one recently, and while its not perfect, it seems to do a better job. I will include pics, but the basic premise is my overflow, which handles 900 gph, flows into a filter sock, over a divider, into the bio chamber, over a drip tray, and scrubbies as bio. the pump is a rio hyperflow, which at 4ft of head rates at 840gph. return is pushed out via a homemade spraybar. substrate is pool filter sand, and deco is tx holey rock, and other assorted rock.

Onto the problem. with as much filtration as I have, I feel i should have crystal clear water, which i do not. should I add a powerhead, or some hob for extra filtration? the only issue i see is that the overflow skims the top of the water, but i dont have anything to get the bottom of the tank. other thing is, I have diy cfls, and I have upped the lighting recently because I wanted some algae growth on the rocks, but its been a mostly brownish coating to it. if i cut back on the light, should that help with clear water? Im open to suggestions. what amount of stock should I have in my 55 to overstock the africans? I have added quite a bit....pics to come
 
pic locations....and the last pic, i need to clean the filter sock after only a day and a half...oh, and i do water changes of 30-50 percent once every 5 days or so....
 
if you cleaning the filter sock that offten its probably because its to fine,
what micron size do you use
if your using lets sat a 200 micron you could put a 400 micron one in side that and a 800 inside that and that should help lengthen the time between cleaning
btw i have not used filter socks but i have read plenty about them on here,

hopefully some one with more experience can give you more advice

you say the water isnt clear what are your parameters? get a test kit or go to a lfs and let them test it
how long is your tank been running for?
how did you cycle it?

if its an algea bloom you could cut down on the lighting duration and do more water changes
make sure your not getting to uch natural sun light as welll

if that doesnt work some fresh carbon will help or you could go with the expansive alternative purigen

any way good luck and test you water that will give us a better idea of whats wrong

welcome to mfk
 
I would say the debris is cause by the way in which the water is turning in the tank. Try repositioning the output of the pump and try to direct more flow into the overflows. otherwise, you could always look at using a canister to polish the water.
 
Also, check to see if you are pump debris back into the tank via the pump. I generally like to have a bit of space on the bottom of the sump for any dirt to settle.
 
i just got the filter sock, and im not sure what the micron is. I got it at my lfs, and the owner wasnt in, so they didnt know what micron it is.... i do need to get a test kit to make sure all my parameters are in order, i do know i have no ammonia, as i have tested for that. tanks been running 6 months, cycled it with starter fish. I upped the lighting wanting more green algae on my rocks, but its been mostly brown, which i think contributes to my water not being very clear. natural sunlight isnt a prob, its located away from it.

i may pick up a bag of carbon to throw in underneath the floss on the drip tray...thanks for the welcome, been a lurker for a while...

pharaoh, my pump is in its own chamber, and its off the ground a bit, the bracket holds it about 1-2 inches off the glass... I have my spraybar holes pushed down and out. its weird, the lower 1/4 of the tank is fine, yet at about 3/4 u see some dustlike sediment, almost like airbubbles....thought the sock would fix that.

I do have a decent load of africans in there, what should i stop at as far as overstocking? is this brown algae bad for my tank? i think what i am going to do is, cut my lighting way back down, to about 6 hours per day, pull one rock per day, and scrub them down, ridding this brown algae from the rocks. and also add a carbon bag for a few weeks to pull any small particles from the water. sound like a plan?
 
Typically, the brown algae will turn green. It usually starts off as brown. I would give it a bit of time before tearing down the tank and cleaning everything.
 
you could also make sure you have the right kind of light. the daylight cfls and enough wattage of them should give you lots of green algae. but be prepared to scrape them off the glass because they WILL grow there and it will be annoying.
 
I have 4 15 watt 6700k cfl bulbs on each side. totals out to about 60 watts per side. im just a hair over 2 wpg. i didnt have algae problems when i had my timer set to around 8 hours, but i switched it to 12 lately, and ive had a huge bloom ever since...

so u think i should wait to clean the rocks? i have some green algae on my main rock, but thats about it. the rest have the brown slime on them. i wouldnt pull all of them at once, just a few at a time...
 
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