New to sumps need advice

[Monolicious]

Hi guys and gals,

I have attached a pic of my new sump, It has been up and running for 2 weeks now but only at 2500LPH it is running a 1700LTR tank, am a little concerned that there is something wrong and was looking for advice. My probleme is that the centre chamber where the pump and heaters goes at the waters surface seems to be a thin film building up it is also on the return hose, I was wondering if I had set this up wrong or is this normal for this kind af filtration until the bacteria become established.

 

[I<3fish]

Hi guys and gals,

I have attached a pic of my new sump, It has been up and running for 2 weeks now but only at 2500LPH it is running a 1700LTR tank, am a little concerned that there is something wrong and was looking for advice. My probleme is that the centre chamber where the pump and heaters goes at the waters surface seems to be a thin film building up it is also on the return hose, I was wondering if I had set this up wrong or is this normal for this kind af filtration until the bacteria become established.

Doesn't look like it's much of a home for beneficial bacteria.

 

[Monolicious]

Why do you say that ?? What is wrong with it.

 

[nfored]

I only see one bag of BioMax, on the left hand side, why nothing on the right? I see tons mech filter but not much bio.

 

[I<3fish]

Why do you say that ?? What is wrong with it.

Well, most of it is underwater and bacteria need oxygen.

 

[Monolicious]

It's only on the left hand side due to insuficient fund
I will be getting more nect week

Are you sure it needs to be above water as bio media in a canister is all under water ???? I was under the impression that as long as the water is flowing through the media it will function as it is meant to

Any pics or diagrams of sump set ups would help graetly.

 

[cr8on]

Well, most of it is underwater and bacteria need oxygen.

The point of having a sump is that the media is exposed to oxygen anyway, as a sump is open, not sealed up like a canister. You won't be using bioballs I'm guessing as they need to be out of the water with a continuous spray of water to work properly, but using biomedia with a large surface area such as Matrix, Siporax or Ehfisubstrat should work well in your sump. I would aim for 10 - 20L of biomedia depending on your intended stocking levels.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

There are 2 types of sumps a wet sump and a wet/dry sump. What you have there is a wet sump. They were popular back in the day and do a good job if you stock them with the right media's. If it were me i would load that thing full of plastic pot scrubbies for bio media. Not mater what you choose I think you deffinetly need more bio media. As for the film it could have been any type of residue from new silicone to something else.

 

[johnson5585]

I got a bunch of pot scrubbies in mine as well as bio balls. Going to add the ceramic ring type as well such as the biomax or maybe the matrix. The pot scrubbies are definitely the cheapest way to go. Especially if you can find them at a dollar store in bulk packs. I put air stones under mine to help with oxygenation since I do not have a wet/dry set up. The scrubbies and bio balls are doing the trick in mine being fully submerged. The more bio media you have the better.

 

[twk1]

yeah.. i would take out whatever filter floss you have in the first two chambers on the outsides, then fill them up with bio-balls or pot scrubbers, and then put egg crates on top of them to let water drip onto them.
As for the other chambers, i would also add more pot scrubbers to the rest of the other chambers so that water can run through them and for more beneficial to grow on.