I've posted a few threads to help me set up, a 180Gal. tank. Since this would be my largest tank ever, I have many questions on filtratrion. I'm looking at a used tank on CL with over flow that comes with a 40gal Sump. (I've never had a sump) My question is: Do you need to do weekly water changes with sumps? or can you go a little longer?
New to Sumps- Water changes??
- Thread starter fishtician
- Start date
The way to gauge how often you need to do water changes is to monitor your nitrates...
Decide what you wish to allow your max nitrates to be, then see how long it typically takes your tank to get there when doing X volume water changes every Y days...
For some people with heavily stocked tanks with messy fish that is 50% every week... for other people it could be 25% ever 2 weeks...
By having a sump you are adding more water volume to your system and as they say "the solution to pollution is dillution", therefore your nitrates will climb slightly slower than if you had the same stock in the same tank without the sump.
Decide what you wish to allow your max nitrates to be, then see how long it typically takes your tank to get there when doing X volume water changes every Y days...
For some people with heavily stocked tanks with messy fish that is 50% every week... for other people it could be 25% ever 2 weeks...
By having a sump you are adding more water volume to your system and as they say "the solution to pollution is dillution", therefore your nitrates will climb slightly slower than if you had the same stock in the same tank without the sump.
Thanks... I'm totally new to sumps.. I've only had wall mount filtration in the past. I just wanna know what I'm doing, prior to doing it.. Any other info. would be greatly appreaciated..
the volume of sump related information on this website is second to none. You have a lot of fun reading and research to do! Overall sumps are less work and better filtration than comparable flow canisters or hobs.
kallmond;3967093; said:
And feasible to DIY so they are cheaper also
They are very simple really. Basically you have two tanks, one on top of the other. You pump water from the bottom tank into the upper tank and gravity takes over so the extra water "overflows" back down to the bottom tank.
The bottom tank can be anything that holds water, old fish tank, buckets, rubber made container. Very cheap. Larger the better of course, because the more water you have in your "system" the more stable everything is. Also you can hide equipment down there out of site like heaters, probes, thermometers.
The trick is when the water is flowing back down to the lower tank you want to filter it i.e. bio tower, filter pads, pot scrubbies. Ideally you want to maximize the usefulness of this drop. If the water surface of the top of the tank is say 5 feet above the ground then you have 5 feet to scrub the hell out of your water as it droppes to the pump intake. Your paying the electric bill to pump that water up, might as well get the filtering advantage when it's flowing back down.
My tank is 30" deep, the overflows are 29" from the bottom of the tank to the surface of the water. I filled that area with bio balls! That's another 29" bio tower before it even gets into my sump for additional filtration.
Good luck!