phosphates

by **lisamarie1961** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:28 pm

Thanks for the info. I do not have a sump or do I even know how to hook one up. I have been looking on youtube and asking how to hook one up. I get no where with anyone on how to hook one up. I do run a skimmer it is for a 150gal aquarium. I do not like adding any chemicals at all into my tank. I use r/0 water. I would like to know if there is anywhere on the net you can go for detailed info on hooking up a sump. Like I said I have ask everyone that knows about saltwater tanks and get nothing useful. One guy at the fishstore ask me if I would have drill holes I said yes and he went on and on and nothing made any since too me. But like I said if you know of any step by step info i can get ahold of I would apprecaite it so much. Thanks.

by **chachi** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:40 pm

the sand sifting snails are good to have. you need to stir up the sand because there can be some reactions if it is not stirred for a while then disturbed can actually give off some really harmful gas. you can either stir the sand manually or let the snails do it. i use nassarius snails for my sand stiring. keep in mind nassarius snails do not eat algae as the others do and will need to be fed. mine eat almost anything: flake, pellets, freeze dried mysis shrimp, etc.

before i could judge your cuc i would need to know what size tank you have. this is in my 10 gallon

1 blue legged hermit
2 nassarius snails - the sand stirrers
3 nerite snails
6 dwarf cerith

about the sump info....

there are 2 sites that have great information sections that i frequent. www.nano-reef.com and www.reefcentral.com try those and look at the do it yourself (DIY) sections.

the basics of a sump are you use something to take the surface water out of your main tank and let is fall into down to your sump by gravity. you do not want a siphon! one method uses a drilled tank to achieve this and thats why your lfs asked. you can use a hang on back overflow box that requires no drilled holes but they are not as reliable as drilled.

you then have a pump in the sump area that pumps water back into the main tank. the amount that "overflows" to the sump is equal to the amount that is pumped. so the bigger the pump the more that will be going between your sump and your main tank. the general rule is that you want to pump 5-10 times your water volume an hour. so in my 10 gal with 5 gal sump that would be a 75 to 150 gph pump. keep in mind you will lose some gph because of how high you are pumping the water up though.

here is a good link for more details http://www.aquacorals.com/ShopTipsReefSetUp.htm

Hope this helps.

chachi

by **fihsboy** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:38 pm

This site is great.......but go to www.thereeftank.com for more traffic. Most of the people with higher post counts know what they are talking about......I say most because a few still use plenums.....which work but are a pain in the rear! I have the same screen name there as here, and they helped me a lot starting my tank up, almost as much as the guys here did. Personally my favorite website for info on sumps.....how to...and why.....
Melevsreef.com You wont be dissapointed. He has great setups...and has a lot of how to. What size tank are you running? What skimmer is it? I guarntee you, if you post ANY question on thereeftank you will get an answer within the hour....any time of day. Also, you can look on the club section of TRT and see if you have a club nearby you.....then fellow reefers can help you out face to face. :) Hope that helps a little! If you have any questions and just want to ask here......as saltwater pimp....blueshoes.......snowboss....puffedupseagull.....or myself as far as saltwater. There are others here that have been here longer......but I dont know them as well as these guys.

by **lisamarie1961** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:02 pm

Thanks fihsboy
I will be checking out these other sites and I use seaclone skimmer for 150 gal tank. I have a 125. Im always trying to stive for better. I have had my salttank now for a year, upgraded from a 75g to my 125. I love my salt water fish. I have lost a few and the one I feared was losing the most is my flame angel, I have had him almost a year now. I started in Jan. 09 with my 75g and then of oct 09 i started my 125g that once was my 125 freshwater. I know enough to get buy but I still want to lear more. Thanks for the information and I will check it out.

by **fihsboy** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:40 am

You can make your tank run 10000% better with one change....no joke....The Seaclone is the worst skimmer besides the biocube skimmers on the market. I tested one out from my lfs......epic fail compared to anything else I have ran. If your just running fish.....and soft corals....this skimmer will be fine for your tank. It will skim stuff out that you never knew was there. Your skimmate will be the color of pure dirt.....and you will see how dissapointing the seaclone skimmers are.

http://www.aquacave.com/reef-octopus-bh ... -2346.html

I thought the Remoras were the best thing since sliced bread.....I was wrong.....I tried this brand of skimmer......game over. Im free to try new things....But.....the best skimmers I have ever used personally....Reef Octopus.....and MRC (My Reef Creations) Either one will blow there competition out of the water!

by **lisamarie1961** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:34 pm

The reef octopus looks like "mother" of all skimmers I will have to save a little but I will get this for sure. So no sumps are required? Thanks for this info.

by **fihsboy** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:11 am

You dont have to have a sump.....but it will help you in the long run with added water volume......and you can hide your heater and skimmer. If you dont mind those being in your tank....and your keeping it simple...dont waste your energy on a sump. Im running a calcium reactor and auto top off....which is a lot easier to just run a sump with the two. The pump that comes with that skimmer, is a beast. You can get a pinwheel for the Sicce pumps that will pull 29scfh of air....which is about as much as your going to get with a skimmer that small and powerful. Im moddifying my Octopus skimmer now, and it should pull about the same amount of air...(I have an older model, the new models already rock) You wont be dissapointed. I actually saw a mod for the seaclone skimmers that makes them decent if your interested, its the same mod im doing with my skimmer. Im doing a write up on it tomorrow when I do the mod, it will cost less then 10 bucks....and it will increase performance by around 30-40% with any skimmer. :)

by **lisamarie1961** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:42 am

Thanks again I can`t wait until Im able to upgrade my skimmer. Like I said, I have only been in the salt aquariums for a year now and Im still learing things. Thanks keep me posted on anything!

by **lisamarie1961** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:06 pm

Thanks everyone for all the info.

by **fihsboy** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:38 pm

btw, I did the mod on my skimmer, im hooking it up tomorrow. I saw a seaclone skimmer with a pinwheel mod and it was pulling pretty nice skimmate. its always worth a try...could save you some money.....but even with it modified it wont pull like the reef octopus would. :) im a big fan of squeezing my pennys to there last little bit.

phosphates

25 posts • Page 2 of 3

phosphates

25 posts • Page 2 of 3