Sump polishing question

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peacock madness

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2010
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infront of my tank watchin my fishes
So currently on my 125, im using a Eshopps brand sump rated 150-200gallons, an overflow box rated at roughly 900gph and its being run with mag 18. Its T'd off with dual returns pushing roughly 5-6' of head on each line. I did install a ball valve just to be safe, and as it sits i currently have the valve a little less then full open flow, somewhere between 80-90% open. I also run two penguin 350s for added filtration. Yes i know its over filtered, but i like clean water. The stocking (i know some of u will ask) is 1 pearsei, 1 bocourti, 1 flagtail, 1 baby silver arowana,1raspberryhead severum, 1 green severum, 4 clown loaches, and 2 bristlenose plecos.

NOW, My question is this.....
My water is never crystal clear, i do regular wc's twice weekly, and i clean it good when i do them, but theres always the little particles. I want to add another overflow and then run it into my sumps open side into a sock hanger to polish my water, but im wondering if it will slow my current overflows turnover for the main bio are on the sump to much? Prior to the new mag 18, i ran a mag 7.5, and it would only allow enough waterflow that the U tubes in my overflow box wouldnt both run. Now with the new pump they are both flowing great, and its right where i want it.. i dont want to lose my flow into the bio area but i dont want to add a smaller micron padding either, ive heard if ur not paying full attention u could risk it overflowing. The new overflows is rated at 800gph and is a single line, so thats why im worried over flow loss to the bio side. Im willing to part with my HOB's if i half to add a new pump, but im unsure of what size in addition id need.

In advance, i appologize for the over thinking of this, but my main goal is i want my water polished and cheaply done. Thank you for ur help..
 
Your overflows are only going to drain as much water as your pump is pumping in. Your tank won't overflow unless that pump is pushing water into the tank faster than the overflows can drain. Which you're probably pretty close if you say your overflow is rated for 900 gph. Why don't you just keep your current set up and just add a filter sock to it? You don't need the water to go over the bio media at a huge gallon per hour rate. Add a power head in the tank to get more flow and the suspended particles will have a better chance of getting sucked through the overflow and be filtered out. Just what I think you should do.
But adding a second overflow will slow down your other overflow. It won't matter how many gallons per hour you're putting through your sump if it's not filtering the water correctly.


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That's what I figured.. the design on my sump, as much as I love it doesn't have room for sock unless I use the hang on style in the open area of it. I do also have a power head which I forgot to mention and things are getting moved around, I just don't have the polishing I want. The padding I use currently doesn't catch the small stuff that bugs me. That's why I was considering removing the two hob's and adding another pump. It wouldn't increase my turnover any more and would roughly keep it the same only i would be getting the polishing effect I want for clearer water.. just debating and looking for input
 
In the video u can clearly see the particles, it may not be 100% of what is keeping my water from being clear like I want, but its a big part of it and that what I'm trying to eliminate. In the video the tank looks obviously cloudy, but that's also because I did a water change at most 2 hrs prior to the video. Once that settles its decently clear and still lots of particles.
 
You're talking about the things floating around right? They look like micro bubbles to me and most of them were floating to the surface. Try turning your water pump off and see if those particles disappear.


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