What is your sump setup?

[Willbiker]

Hi all

I want to ditch my canister filters on my new 625l tank and go for a sump set up but it seems there are lots of configurations available so I was interested to see what setups you have. Socks for mechanical filtration, Sponges for removing bubbles, protein skimmer, refugium, live rock, media...

What setup would you recommend I go for?

Thanks!

 

[Dinodanger]

Filter roller, fuge and skimmer, if you don’t have a lot of rock marine pure block would help biological filtration. Just what i run personally

 

[Plecosam]

What he said minus the marine pure, it is too brittle for my tastes, better options IMHO these days. Filter socks are good too if you keep up with their maintenance.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Mine goes like this:

-Overflow into a small chamber with a heater.
- Water directed to a drop with 2 filter socks
- Water directed to a powerhead which makes chaeto spin.
- Water enters main chamber (Real reef rock, media reactor with biopellets and carbon flows out into skimmer intake)
-Water enters return chamber with a return pump and a marinepure block.

 

[badluckman]

Mine is set up with, in order of flow, Filter socks > Skimmer > Bubble trap > Chaeto refugium (lit by 2x T5 bulbs)

I clean the filter socks maybe twice a week, skimmer every 2 weeks or when the collection cup is half full. Chaeto is competing with GHA in the fuge, but there's not a single strand in the DT.

 

[Victor_C3]

Mine is way easier than most people's.

It’s most just a 175 gallon plywood tank that I built with a cryptic filtration area, semi-cryptic area, and an algae refugium.

For the time being, I have an undersized protein skimmer pulling about 1/3 of the incoming water in my input area for 11 hours per day when the lights are off. I’m slowly reducing the time the skimmer is on so that I can build a healthy population of sponges and filter feeders to naturally take care of the dissolved organic compounds. I do use activated carbon sitting passively in a media bag in my return section.

The only thing I deal with in terms of maintenance is change the activated carbon media monthly, add water to my ATO reservoir, and do the occasional water change.

I discuss it a little bit more in my build thread.

 

[cloak]

I like to keep my sumps simple. No baffles, no filter socks, no refuge etc. Just a protein skimmer, heater and a return pump. Keeping this area clean is a breeze.

 

[saltyhog]

Mine has a small initial chamber with 3 filter cups with Polyfil in them, next chamber is the largest and houses my skimmer and heaters, the next chamber is a refugium with a power head and chaeto that also houses the effluent from my reactors....it also contains my temp and pH probes, the last chamber is my return pump chamber and also is where the tubes from my dosing pumps drain.

 

[rfgonzo]

I keep all my sumps simple and effective. I do run refugiums but they are separate from my sump. The only filtration is a skimmer. Then I have 4 heaters, a pump for chiller, ATO, and return pump. Only 3 bubble trap baffles just before return pump.

 

[Indytraveler83]

My sump is fairly simple:

1) Water flows in and through into filter socks (which I never remember to clean regularly)

2) water enters the main chamber of the sump which is a fuge with the heater in it.

3) I have a HOB skimmer hanging off the side of the fuge area to save room in the sump.

4) water goes through a bubble trap and into the return chamber.

 

[waleedreef]

from display to refugium—> Skimmer —> manifold goes for return pump, Chiller & UV back to tank. No filter. Water is clear. Filter is waste of money and time.

 

[mcshams]

My flow is dictated by the area I have for my sump... and I run a 90g cube, so it's not that big (that's what she sa....nvm). But I go from tank ----->sock--->into first compartment that houses pump to 40W UV sterilizer and protein skimmer--->the first baffle---->into refuge with chaeto and marine pure block and several crabs/snails---->next baffle to return pump with 2 x 150W heaters (the UV sterilizer brings water back into this section skipping over the refuge).