New tank, no sump?

[rwilson24]

Hi all

So, I’ve been wanting a saltwater tank for years (since 2005), but never took the plunge.

I’ve had freshwater for decades, probably since at least 2000, and a recent trip to hawaii has really made me wanna take the jump again.

I will ask more questions, as I’m sure there are some updates since when I researched starting one back in 2005.

However, my question comes, most large tanks are drilled and plumbed. I live in a condo, and can do a decent size, but the plumbing etc to a sump makes me a bit worried. Is it possible to do a large tank without a sump? Perhaps with a few large aquaclears acting as sumps on the back?

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

They make pre-filter surface skimmers with auto syphons to hang on normal aquariums and connect them to sumps. People use them instead of drilling holes in the tank.

You can run a marine tank without a sump. Sumps simply give you more water volume, which helps to make up some of the water you lose by adding a rocky reef. The rock displaces the water in the display tank so people have a sump connected to the display, to add more water volume back.

I have had dozens of marine tanks and none had trickle filters/ sumps. I had some with undergravel filters (mainly fish holding tanks). I had tanks with air operated sponge filters (breeding tanks for shrimp, fish and dumpling squid). I had tanks with external canister filters; and tanks loaded with live rock and no filters, just water pumps and airstones for water movement and aeration. The filtration on these last tanks was the live rock.

If you want a rocky reef, a lot of people are using the rock as the biological filter and simply use an internal power filter to remove and trap the gunk and sediment. The power filters get washed out each week.

You can grow macro algae like Caulerpa and Halimeda in the tank or sump and this can help keep the water cleaner for longer. Some people are keeping macro algae marine tanks, which are the saltwater equivalent of the freshwater plant tank. You can look at them on YouTube.

It comes down to what you want to keep and how much money you want to spend.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hi all

So, I’ve been wanting a saltwater tank for years (since 2005), but never took the plunge.

I’ve had freshwater for decades, probably since at least 2000, and a recent trip to hawaii has really made me wanna take the jump again.

I will ask more questions, as I’m sure there are some updates since when I researched starting one back in 2005.

However, my question comes, most large tanks are drilled and plumbed. I live in a condo, and can do a decent size, but the plumbing etc to a sump makes me a bit worried. Is it possible to do a large tank without a sump? Perhaps with a few large aquaclears acting as sumps on the back?

Thanks

One of the nice things about using sumps is that it helps keep all the filtering equipment out of the display tank giving your fish more room to swim around and less stress when doing cleaning and water changes. Another plus is that it adds more oxygenation when set up properly. Less splash in the main tank keeps the " salt creep" away and with more splash in the sump, you get your oxygen more cleanly.
Are they a necessity? No, but definitely an advancement over the way we kept marine tanks in the 60s and 70s. I saw a marked difference in my fish's activity and health when I converted to a Wet/Dry filter.
As Colin said, there are skimmer boxes that hang on the main tank and feed the sump. Return pumps from the sump can be either internal or external ( which means drilling the sump) so it becomes a personal choice.

The #1 thing to keep in mind is that a marine tank is NOT a saltwater version of a freshwater tank so you need to adjust. The " biological system" is the same in respect to ammonia, nitrite and nitrate but more is going on in the tank than just those.

Hope this helps.