Re-setting up my sump, help please....

[MichaelI]

Hi all,

I have had my new sump set up now for about 1.5 months now and the tank is going well, getting though a algea bloom after adding lots of new Lr which had lots of algea on.

All my corals are growing well and everything seams ok

But i think i might have set my sump up wrong as most of my cheto has dyed off and im not sure if i have set my fuge set up right.

So im looking at cleaning it all out and starting fresh.

So my quesion is to you guys, Were do i start?

I have been reading about the MM system and DSD and i think if i was going to go for one i would go for the MM / cheto etc

Is there any extra benefit to what i am doing now, 1 - 2cms of sand with a few big bits of LR and some cheto with the light on 10 hours a day.

I was looking at just cleaning all the sand out and putting about 1 - 2cm bed of mm down and adding some LR (the stuff thats already in there) and some cheto.

Is this possable or do i need to do things diffrent?

I have included some pics of my sump at the moment.

Hope you guys can help.

Thanks michael

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p257/MichaelsCBR/19032009037.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p257/MichaelsCBR/19032009046.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p257/MichaelsCBR/19032009047.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p257/MichaelsCBR/19032009048.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p257/MichaelsCBR/19032009042.jpg

[Willuk]

I'm not experienced in this what so ever as I'm only starting with a fuge now, but it seems your bed is to shallow, I believe for MM you will need 4-6" of depth and a slowish rate of water passing through it. Also 24/7 lighting is preferred on the fuge. As I said I'm still learning but allot of this info came from this site as well as others. I'm sure somone on here will put it right for you.

[redlion1968]

im in teh process of building a sump myself, i have previously built a refugium and added it to an existing tank so whilest not an expert i have done a lot of research on this.

adding MM is a good option, but you only need 1 inch depth, thats what it says on the instruction, website etc, i missjudged mine when building the fuge and its just over but it seems to be working away nicely.

i dont know if its the pics or my limited knowledge but the levels in the sump dont appear right,

also, if you go the MM route you may want to see if you can run the sump closed loop for a whiel to allow it to settle before connecting it to teh main tank, obvioulsy there is a chance that any actions will kick off another cycle so make sure you test regularly and have plenty of water ready in case you need ot do an emergency water change, i ran mine closed loop for 2 days then connected it to nano and it worked well, i had to do water changes fairly regulalry as i didnt get the opportunity to cycle the nano (long story - explained in "hogfish Hotel" thread"

hth

24/7 lighting is best for the fuge, what sort of lighting did you have on this one before the cheato crashed? i found cheato does benefit from quite a lot of lighting power, i had trouble growing it in my other tank and then added a more powerful light of an appropriatte spectrum and since then its gone mad.

using LR is good but you should consider mounting it off of the substrate, partly to allow a clear flow over the substrate and also so it doesnt compact it down, im going to use a bit of egg crate on some perspex legs for mine.

[Willuk]

Soz I meant to of said if a DSB then 4-6"! Still at least you have a response now!

[Cranners]

Basically I would smash the live rock into rubble pieces and put them into the baffles - that way you get live rubble filtration which is separate from the Mud. I would put only 1in or 2cm of MM into the sump. If you want to use chaeto that is fine but for MM I would suggest caulerpa and you can use small pieces of live rock to weight it down so it can root into the mud.

I would not have any other large pieces of rock in the mud section. The algae grows like mad and you need to be careful when harvesting it.

24/7 is the recommended cycle but you can reverse light it during the night if you want to cut down on electricity costs. I have two T5 24w lights on my sump which will be changed to smaller wattage energy saving bulbs - perhaps 2 x 20w or even 2 11w with reflectors.

I am planning to add the T5's to my main display to punch more light into it as I am growing acroporas and what to bring more colour out of them.

The section which is where the tank drains into could also be filled with bioballs which is another feature of the MM filtration system.


Regards

J

[Cranners]

PS I would also turn off the skimmer for longer and longer periods and then shut it down - if can be used for emergencies but a skimmer isn't required for MM

The algae harvesting does the job which the skimmer did - regular water changes when you harvest the algae will also help.

[andyp123]

MM??:confused:

[Cranners]

Miracle Mud

Sorry

J

[MichaelI]

Thanks all for your help.

I will let you know how it goes on.

I will be ordering some MM this weekend unless any ones go any they are chucking away that is already mature.

For how i have cleaned my sume and i have added some more cheto and changed my lighting to 24 /7

With regards to my light im using one of those 24w compact lights, but im going to upgrade to a energy saving bulb to cut the leccy bill.

Thanks all