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Post by BriMc on Apr 1, 2014 20:08:31 GMT -5
The only time I shut the pumps off on the 29 is when I am target feeding. My overflow has a plastic micro screen preventing large particles and food from getting to the sump. My refugium is fed by a small pump with a screen cover, anything that gets through gets pulverized by the impeller but I still get tons of crud in it. Unfortunately shutting down the pumps on this tank is a task and a half. The new tank will be different  |
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Post by Tucker on Apr 1, 2014 23:21:41 GMT -5
You are dumping flake, freeze dried krill, frozen food, etc, etc, into your tank and lot of this ends up in your overflow, depending on how much you feed quite a bit of food will end up in the refugium. Pods do consume some but they will never keep up with the possible amount of food that could end up in the refugium before it spoils. I thought this was common practice, maybe it isn't, but I turn off my main pump during feeding for 5-10 minutes. I am definitely not that diligent at shutting off my pumps. I just stick the food below the water line and call it good. |
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NateG
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Post by NateG on Apr 2, 2014 8:45:37 GMT -5
+1 to doing what I can to keep food in the tank
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NateG
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Post by NateG on Apr 2, 2014 8:47:40 GMT -5
And fwiw my buddy has a 65 gallon sump on his 120 and I absolutely love it. Center return chamber. Fuge on right. Skimmer on left. Both are fed raw water. I just picked up some sand/mud/chaeto from him and that very night (last night) SWARMS of pods all around my display  |
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Post by BriMc on Apr 2, 2014 9:00:42 GMT -5
In an ideal word (Fenner et Calfo) a fuge should be 400% the size of your display tank. So when you are into the world of having a fuge far less than 100% of your display, every cubic inch of space makes a pretty significant contribution to the effectiveness of the fuge. That being said it should be pretty clear that if you can run a remote fuge as large as possible, have no regrets and do it. |
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Post by BriMc on Apr 2, 2014 9:07:49 GMT -5
I am not saying the pod population will not thrive nor am I saying anyone wouldn't love a big sump. I am saying the sump eventually will become dirty from unprocessed food. Remember also that the larger the sump the more able the sump will be to keeping up with the junk being dumped into it and breaking down the food. Having a sump half the size of your tank or larger is a rarity not an normality. Take a piece of food put it in your chaeto and see how long it takes to disappear, now times that by how much more food gets in your sump times how many times you feed your tank.
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Post by Pokahpolice on Apr 2, 2014 9:10:19 GMT -5
And fwiw my buddy has a 65 gallon sump on his 120 and I absolutely love it. Center return chamber. Fuge on right. Skimmer on left. Both are fed raw water. I just picked up some sand/mud/chaeto from him and that very night (last night) SWARMS of pods all around my display DO you have a pic of the fuge? I'd like to see how the baffles are set up. Can't really put it together in my head. |
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Post by Pokahpolice on Apr 2, 2014 9:17:37 GMT -5
I am not saying the pod population will not thrive nor am I saying anyone wouldn't love a big sump. I am saying the sump eventually will become dirty from unprocessed food. Remember also that the larger the sump the more able the sump will be to keeping up with the junk being dumped into it and breaking down the food. Having a sump half the size of your tank or larger is a rarity not an normality. Take a piece of food put it in your chaeto and see how long it takes to disappear, now times that by how much more food gets in your sump times how many times you feed your tank. My sump is 100% of my Display. Add in skimmer and dual reactors and I'm probably over 100%. Granted, that's not a hard task when you only have a 10 gallon display tank. IMO this is the way to have a successful nano. After doing this build I've come to a conclusion that most tanks should have a much larger sump. This tiny system so far has been one of the most stable systems I've had to date...and it's a nano. |
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NateG
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Post by NateG on Apr 2, 2014 9:20:35 GMT -5
I just texted him for ya. So basically the return is smack dab in center. Very narrow center chamber for return pump. ATO is required. Bubble trap on both left and right of return pump. Maybe 16" baffles for both large chambers? Stand for skimmer. A suggestion I had made to him for the fuge side, was creating a small overflow box for the drain water to dump into and cascade over. Its a small trapezoid type box in the corner with a triangle on its bottom. Its maybe 6" across. Hard to explain and to imagine. Ill post his picture for you when I get it. As far as refugiums go its reasonably large 75 gallon sump/fuge for the 125? |
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NateG
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Post by NateG on Apr 2, 2014 9:23:37 GMT -5
I am not saying the pod population will not thrive nor am I saying anyone wouldn't love a big sump. I am saying the sump eventually will become dirty from unprocessed food. Remember also that the larger the sump the more able the sump will be to keeping up with the junk being dumped into it and breaking down the food. Having a sump half the size of your tank or larger is a rarity not an normality. Take a piece of food put it in your chaeto and see how long it takes to disappear, now times that by how much more food gets in your sump times how many times you feed your tank. I take it your only method of preventing food from getting to the sump is via filter socks? How often do you realistically run those? Micron? |
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Post by jasonandsarah on Apr 2, 2014 9:56:55 GMT -5
I am not saying the pod population will not thrive nor am I saying anyone wouldn't love a big sump. I am saying the sump eventually will become dirty from unprocessed food. Remember also that the larger the sump the more able the sump will be to keeping up with the junk being dumped into it and breaking down the food. Having a sump half the size of your tank or larger is a rarity not an normality. Take a piece of food put it in your chaeto and see how long it takes to disappear, now times that by how much more food gets in your sump times how many times you feed your tank. I take it your only method of preventing food from getting to the sump is via filter socks? How often do you realistically run those? Micron? What do you use besides filter socks? What micron would you recommend? I use 2 filter socks and clean/switch them out every 3 days. I can't remember what micron I have.... but anyways one way I make sure un eaten food gets taken care of is I have a few hermits and snails in my sump. Not really purposely I just seem to always have a couple down there! Haha they do the job though. I'm dying to upgrade my tank so that's why I'm asking, never hurts to plan ahead:) |
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Post by BriMc on Apr 2, 2014 9:59:36 GMT -5
I run them constantly changing them out once a week. 100 micron polypropylene
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Post by Pokahpolice on Apr 2, 2014 10:12:20 GMT -5
Isn't 100 micron trapping beneficial larvae?
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Post by Syntax on Apr 2, 2014 13:28:07 GMT -5
I purchase 100 foot rolls of drainage pipe sock from Home Depot for $20.00 and my wife makes a fresh filter sock every few days.... Cheap enough to throw away. One roll makes about 150 socks... That's about 450 days worth for $20.00.
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NateG
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Post by NateG on Apr 2, 2014 13:49:22 GMT -5
Very neat idea with the roll of drainage pipe sock.
This is another area of reefkeeping that has many different schools of thought and I truly believe that for most aquarists using a filter sock will do more harm than good (particularly with the felt socks). The mesh socks are better but even then, unless the water is truly very turbid and needs to be polished often, any filter sock will do more harm than good in a reef tank. Just my opinion, but If i recall correctly, many of the reef central tanks of the months fed fuges with raw water and only used filter socks as needed.
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