Sump Setup Advice

[mr_X]

No filter pad. You want pods to make it to the return pump with as few obstacles in their way as possible.
Home depot or Lowes sells that stuff in the lighting department.

 

[Ingy]

I can't see the pic either "connection error".

Here's a pic of a piece of egg crate I'm using to keep the turbo out if my overflow area.

It comes in a 2' x 4 or 5' piece. The rest is under my gravel keeping the rocks off the glass but on the bottom.

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Would anyone buy chaeto off of cl? There's a guys who's selling 1 quart bags for $5.

 

[Ingy]

If he's local, why not. I'd sell mine that way but there's no market for it in my small town. So I throw it in the compost when it gets trimmed

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

How much does it usually go for at lfs?

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

How do I know what my overflow capacity is rated at?

 

[Ingy]

A 1" overflow drain is 600 gph
A 1.5" drain is 1000 gph

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Ok it's an 1.5" opening, but I'm going to be running 1" PVC. Will my rio2100 work we'll for the return?

 

[Robert_ellis]

A 2100 is a small pump. I have a 55 gallon and I run a 3400 I believe it is. 33, 34 or 3500... One of those... A 2100 is good for circulation in a small tank. Not anything over 25 gallons in my opinion and the 2100 probably won't have enough head pressure to push the water from a sump up 3-4 ft back into the tank.

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Ok that's good to know. I'll look for larger ones today. I saw someone's return pipe that went into tank then the PVC shot to the from, was capped and had small holes drilled into it. Any thoughts?

 

[mr_X]

Eh..I don't see the point of that. It just slows down the flow IMO.

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Ok gotcha X. Also I set up my skimmer and sump outside to make sure sump holds wanted and that skimmer funtions correctly. Seems to be wolfing, but how long until bubbles come into cone? Will bubbles even appear with just water?
Does this go onto skimmer anywhere?

 

[mr_X]

LOL...interesting auto correct!
Bubbles should be produced immediately, salt or fresh. That thing there should be above water, if I'm not mistaken. It's a muffler of sorts for the air intake. It needs to take in air.

I looked up "wolfing". Here is what I found.....

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Ok so I added my little muffler to the pump supplying the skimmer. It seemed to create air bubbles.

 

[mr_X]

Something still isn't right. that reaction chamber should be full of white bubbles.

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Water is slowly coming out from around the reaction cups neck? Would this be the problem?

 

[mr_X]

you should have a gasket between the cup and reaction chamber. This is important. No water should be leaking out of there.
Your shkimmer, if working properly, should be full of white bubbles, like this-

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Perfect! I'll have to get a gasket and see if that helps. If not I may just set sump up for now, then next month get a new skimmer. I was really hoping that I could run this one until summer.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Ok so I added my little muffler to the pump supplying the skimmer. It seemed to create air bubbles.

If you're using freshwater to test your skimmer keep in mind that it won't have anywhere near the surface tension of saltwater and the bubbles will be much larger. You'll really want to test it in saltwater. It'll act completely different.

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Ok, do you think it'll be ok to run in my mixing cycle. I have 50g mixing now.