Sump Tank Setup

[Tocansam]

Hello All,

I inherited a 90g tank that my business partner use to maintain so I’m learning everything from scratch. The reason I started to look after it is it was looking pretty bad and we had 5 fish die in a period of 6 months. After getting the temperature up from 19 degrees to 25 and getting PH to 8.0 I’m still running high phosphates, nitrites and Nitrates. I purchased a phospam media reactor and have been running Phosoguard for about 3 weeks brough the level down to about 5ppm, but nitrates and nitrite still high.
The sump he has is full of a bunch of media filters that he said shouldn't be changed because they carry good bacteria. I posted a picture so you guys no what I mean. My question is should I be removing this media and cleaning it or does it actually produce good bacteria?

 

[lapin]

Hello All,
I inherited a 90g tank that my business partner use to maintain so I’m learning everything from scratch. The reason I started to look after it is it was looking pretty bad and we had 5 fish die in a period of 6 months. After getting the temperature up from 19 degrees to 25 and getting PH to 8.0 I’m still running high phosphates, nitrites and Nitrates. I purchased a phospam media reactor and have been running Phosoguard for about 3 weeks brought the level down to about 5ppm, but nitrates and nitrite still high.
The sump he has is full of a bunch of media filters that he said shouldn't be changed because they carry good bacteria. I posted a picture so you guys no what I mean. My question is should I be removing this media and cleaning it or does it actually produce good bacteria?

Howdy and welcome.
Great job so far. It did not get that way over night and you will win someday.
My question is should I be removing this media and cleaning it or does it actually produce good bacteria?
Yes you should remove media and the rock and rinse/clean it. Suck up any gunk in the sump. You will not kill off good bacteria unless you use tap water that has chlorine in it. If you replace each sponge pad or filter, 1 at a time it should not effect the tank very much.
5 ppm is high for phosphate. You want to keep at it. You can try carbon dosing. ( vinagar and/or vodka )
It will take time but it works
If you have not tried a large water change try it. It might not make much difference if the rock in the tank is full of gunk. The rocks might need to be pulled and rinsed if possible. Then there is the sand bed. It contains bacteria and prob a lot of gunk. Try to siphon the gunk out of it.
If brandon429 sees this he will say go for the rip clean.

 

[Tocansam]

Howdy and welcome.
Great job so far. It did not get that way over night and you will win someday.
My question is should I be removing this media and cleaning it or does it actually produce good bacteria?
Yes you should remove media and the rock and rinse/clean it. Suck up any gunk in the sump. You will not kill off good bacteria unless you use tap water that has chlorine in it. If you replace each sponge pad or filter, 1 at a time it should not effect the tank very much.
5 ppm is high for phosphate. You want to keep at it. You can try carbon dosing. ( vinagar and/or vodka )
It will take time but it works
If you have not tried a large water change try it. It might not make much difference if the rock in the tank is full of gunk. The rocks might need to be pulled and rinsed if possible. Then there is the sand bed. It contains bacteria and prob a lot of gunk. Try to siphon the gunk out of it.
If brandon429 sees this he will say go for the rip clean.

lapin,
Thanks so much for the reply, do you think I need all those media filters in the sump tank ? From what I seen online and others sump tanks they seem a lot simpler with just a filter sock. also when you say rinse the rocks you referring to to using the rocks that are in the sump correct?
Thanks again

 

[lapin]

Yes, the rocks that are in the sump.
I just run filter socks.
If you remove the media filters all at once you might remove too much bacteria too fast. If you remove them over a week or 2, it will allow for the other surfaces to catch up on bacterial growth.