Sump Design Feedback

[D_Reep1106]

Hey all, So I'm "building" a new sump for my system. Ive designed it out but what I am asking for feedback on is the sequence of the chaeto chamber and the Mangrove/Caulerpa chamber. I have a 5000-ext Skimmer so no need for a skimmer chamber. Let me know what yall think. I'll attach the design.

 

[NS Mike D]

Not sure if you need both caulurpa and cheato.

One school of thought in a sump is to put a few marine pure blocks in a chamber and replace one at a time as they start getting clogged (or crumble).

The idea is that all rock will eventually become clogged with detritus as well as serve as anchor spots for nuisance algae, so keep rock at a minimum in the DT and let the marine pure in the sump do the bulk of the nitrification.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd go that route.

Meanwhile, IME, the caulurpa eventually finds its way into the cheato and chokes out the cheato. Not the end of the world, and this is just my experience, but that I can't rid my fuge of the stuff and it quickly over takes my cheato used to bother me. Not just let them duke it out. I do notice the tigger pods prefer the cheato over the caulurpa.

 

[D_Reep1106]

Not sure if you need both caulurpa and cheato.

One school of thought in a sump is to put a few marine pure blocks in a chamber and replace one at a time as they start getting clogged (or crumble).

The idea is that all rock will eventually become clogged with detritus as well as serve as anchor spots for nuisance algae, so keep rock at a minimum in the DT and let the marine pure in the sump do the bulk of the nitrification.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd go that route.

Meanwhile, IME, the caulurpa eventually finds its way into the cheato and chokes out the cheato. Not the end of the world, and this is just my experience, but that I can't rid my fuge of the stuff and it quickly over takes my cheato used to bother me. Not just let them duke it out. I do notice the tigger pods prefer the cheato over the caulurpa.

Thanks for your input.I’m putting 4 marine pure bricks in the chamber with the filet socks to make up for the lack of surface area in my frag tank and plans to move them out and drain them every 6 months or so to try to keep them from clogging so soon but if they do, not the end of the world I can always replace them.ive never ran chaeto and caulerpa in line like I am here so good to know. The black spray painin between the baffles is a dense media that won’t let any chaetogo through but not so dense it clogs like filter socks. Still plan on rotatingit every 3 months like I do now.

I feel I should give some more insight into my system:

8’x4’x16” frag system ~280 galllons
4’x2’x2’ display tank with sandbed -120 gallons
And then this sump.

I plan to add another display tank over the sump that’s going to be 10’x30”x30” and be bare bottom for my larger acro colonies I frag now.

dosing: BRS 2-part in 5 gallon buckets
BRS Jumbo carbon reactor
Reef octopus bio-pellet reactor(the biggest one they make) running a couple cups of BRS biopellets
Reef octopus 5000-Ext skimmer

4x reefbreeder 24-v2+ on the frag system
3x radion gen 3 pros and 2x T5 on the 120