New sump problem

[saratj1]

I helped a guy who bought a couple frags off me set up a sump. I was planning on building him a sump, but we ended up just buying an eshopps sump from aquatic critter. I went with the guy and picked out/ purchased everything from the critter. Went to his house set it up. I ended up having to go to work that night so I got the sump all set up and dry fit and ran it , of course it had a couple drips as we didn't glue or clamp the pipes. Went and got clamps and pipe glue and got it glued, then I had to go to work.
The problems are one of baffles isn't right, all of the water flows over one side of the baffle to the refugium . I think this is due to poor craftsmanship in the sump, one of the baffles is poorly made. Also another problem is the sumps water line is only about 5" high, so it only adds about 8-10 gallons of water volume and there's not enough depth for a proper refugium, if you put 2-3" of sand I'm the refugium the water is only about 2-3" deep.
To me this isn't acceptable.
To make things worse the guy whose sump it is lost the receipt.

What can we do?
I feel responsible for this since I helped plan this stuff and pick out the parts, but also I'm not getting paid either and I didn't loose the receipt .

What should I do?

Try to take it back to AC without the receipt and exchange it for another sump?
Or
Try to fix the sump by modifying / fixing the baffles to make it flow evenly over the top of the baffle, and modify another baffle to increase the depth/water volume.

The sump was rated for a 100g tank, the tank it's on is a lightly stocked 75g. The sump is around the size of a 30g aquarium.

Thanks. Just kinda bummed about the situation. Dude is dissappointed and out $500 for a crappy sump. I wasted a whole Saturday setting it up and now looks like I will waste another either returning it or modifying it. And not that I really wasted the time because I did this because I enjoy it, but I now feel somewhat guilty and it's not fun anymore lol.

 

[Bishop]

Everything you described about the sump sounds exactly the way it should be. It's not made to add a lot of water volume. It's made to be a place for filtration, skimmer, and heater to keep them out of your display. The reason it's designed to have a low water level is so that there is plenty of space for a display tank up to 100g to flow into when there is a power outage.

It's not that it is a crappy sump, it is just made for people that don't feel like using $5 worth of silicone to hold $6 worth of glass baffles in a $25 tank to make a custom sump. Then there is also the part where if you are not familiar with basic sump design and function, someone could easily end up with 10 gallons of salt water on the floor in a power failure if a custom sump is made wrong.

Considering that noone seems happy about this sump, the first thing to do would be to call Aquatic critter. That is the only way to find out if you can return it.

 

[saratj1]

I understand what your saying maybe I'm not describing the problems adequately. The problem that isn't supposed to be. The water flows over the baffle all on one side so in the front of the sump so if you opened the cabinet door and touched the top edge of the baffle in the front your finger would be dry, and if you touched the top edge of the baffle in the back (side of the sump nearest the house wall) your finger would be in an inch of water. You would think the sump was un-level. But the sump is level.

The issue with the water level (which is the water level that the sump is designed to operate at) is that I just don't see 5" of water being enough for a decent refugium. I understand the need for head room but not 16" of head room. With the overflow setup it only drops about an inch in the display, which equals about three inches in the sump, maybe 4" so basically there's a foot of unused space, I've got enough head room to drain the display nearly half way.

 

[McAllyn]

What sump did you get? R100? Because if you got the RS-100, it's not built for a refugium, it's just a sump. My R100 has darn near 1' of water volume in the center section.

Mac

 

[saratj1]

I believe so, it is an eshopps and 100 was part of the model number

 

[McAllyn]

Yeah, the RS-100 is a sump with skimmer and return chambers. The R-100 has a refugium center section. If there's only two chambers, then you have the RS-100 which has a much smaller baffle. I realize this doesn't help the uneven cut or installation of the baffle, but it would address the "why the fuge area is so shallow."

Mac

 

[saratj1]

It's the rs because we specifically got the one with the refugium.

 

[Bishop]

Ok. I understand what you are coming from now with the baffle. One thing that would still help would be a few pics of what is going on with it. As for fixing the baffle, I'd certainly make a call and at least look to exchanging it for a new one. For the cost of the sump, you shouldn't have to fix it your self.

 

[saratj1]

Ok. I understand what you are coming from now with the baffle. One thing that would still help would be a few pics of what is going on with it. As for fixing the baffle, I'd certainly make a call and at least look to exchanging it for a new one. For the cost of the sump, you shouldn't have to fix it your self.

The thing is dude lost the receipt and threw away the box. If I would have been able to see the sump through to completion I could have saw the problems, but I left when I got him to like 95% done. But the sump is less than a week old, and it cost $250.

 

[SmyrnaReefer]

i would still have him call call them. im sure those things dont blow out there doors so they might remember selling it...

 

[AirAngel]

but the sump is less than a week old, and it cost $250.

thats just silly!!

 

[dzones]

The RS100 is the model with no refugium. The R100 does have the refugium and the compartment for the refugium is 10" high. I cannot understand how you can only get 5" of water in that?

It is this one right???