Chamber between return & fuge

[Hallowhead]

Hello,

I ran into an issue last night that shocked me. The flow between my fuge chamber & return chamber was reduced by my filter mesh shown in picture and resulted in my return chamber constantly being filled by my ATO to account for the slowed down water. This in turn was causing the first & second chamber water height to climb to the point where there may have been an extra gallon in the tank.

My question is do people use media between the two chambers? Is mine too restricting on the flow? Should I get something less coarse? Keep in mind this picture is from super early in the tank life and when I removed the media last night it was covered in goop.

on

 

[scottedontknow]

i NEVER do for that exact reason, BUT if you really want to keep using it id recommend cutting it a bit short on the ends so if it does get clogged water would still have a path to the next chamber.

 

[sbash]

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I would bet that is supposed to be a "bubble trap". I would not put anything in there, especially not foam. Once the foam gets clogged up, that chamber will overflow and your return pump will run dry.

Can you post a photo of the whole sump, or at least the make and model? I'm curious to see the entire design now...

 

[Ridgeway]

I would never run any floss, mesh or any kind of media in a double baffle assembly as you show for the reasons you have just experienced.

Some people do use floss in a similar set up but the gap is wide enough (say 8") that the floss sits on a shelf and when it becomes block the water still has space to pass over it and not affect water level heights.

Personally i'd ditch that mesh

 

[ScottB]

Funny. Early this morning I awoke to the sound of a starving Sicce. Probably 4 months of sponge growth had clogged the foam block in the bubble trap section.

 

[GabeM]

That set of baffles is a bubble trap - to reduce bubbles and separate the chambers. I wouldn't put anything in there.

 

[Hallowhead]

Thanks everyone ! It has been removed.

 

[Hallowhead]

Reporting back... When I took the media out I got a tremendous amount of microbubbles in the DT. I need to put something back. Maybe something much more porous than what I had.

Any suggestions?

 

[arturoo1977]

A sponge? But you have to clean it as often as your other mechanical filters.

 

[Hallowhead]

A sponge? But you have to clean it as often as your other mechanical filters.

I think I'll use same media just half and replace every 2 months

 

[Hallowhead]

I need to figure something out. Still micro bubbles. Does anyone have a link to good media for between there on amazon?

 

[arturoo1977]

You can add another baffler, that should be enough to clear bubbles.
Maybe doing a test before actually glue it.