Need help with homemade filtration

[Justin353]

Hello everyone I’m new to saltwater and made a home made sump but don’t know what to put in it for filtration. Right now I have filter floss, charcoal pellets, and ceramic tubes. Also has filter sock, protein skimmer. I have had this tank set up for 6 months and can’t get ammonia to zero. Tired of losing fish and don’t know what else to do

 

[joseserrano]

Add more bacteria, looks like you don't have enough good bacteria to beat out the waste. Any brand will be fine.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hello everyone I’m new to saltwater and made a home made sump but don’t know what to put in it for filtration. Right now I have filter floss, charcoal pellets, and ceramic tubes. Also has filter sock, protein skimmer. I have had this tank set up for 6 months and can’t get ammonia to zero. Tired of losing fish and don’t know what else to do

Nice, thanks for sharing, comrade

 

[jaxredsoxfan]

What test kit are you using for Ammonia? Seems like with that amount of rock it should be able to handle the load. Have you added fish lately? How much are you feeding? These questions may help determining what the problem actually is.

 

[Jay Z]

Only thing I can see is the ceramics. Do you have good flow through them for the bacteria to thrive? Besides that, looks good. I agree with Dr. Dendrostein, looks like plenty of rock work.

 

[Justin353]

What test kit are you using for Ammonia? Seems like with that amount of rock it should be able to handle the load. Have you added fish lately? How much are you feeding? These questions may help determining what the problem actually is.

I’m using an api test kit, I currently have about 10 fish in the tank which is 120 gallons, I feed one spirulina brine shrimp cube every other day. And using a sump put that’s 1100 gph

 

[reefwiser]

You are not getting good flow thru those ceramic bio media. You want to make sure the water flows thru the media. Not have it sit on the floor of the sump in a pile

Put a prefilter of filter floss as the water enters the sump. Then the ceramic media below that in the first chamber. This makes sure that the media where the bacteria is gets to have the water flow thru it. The bacteria will consume all the ammonia then.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Olace ceramin media in 1st chamber where flow is best and add liquid bacteria such as Dr. Tims or fritz zyme 900. Additionally, tank is very brite. Bump up the blues and reduce whites a little and I have low confidence in API kits.
Take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test water for you and see what readings they come up with for comparison.