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Sump without Wet/Dry

Crossocheilus

Member
Joined
23 Mar 2014
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539
Location
Oxford
I am interested in the idea of a sump for my planned tank. However i have some concerns. Could i not use a wet dry and instead just use ceramic media between baffles to force water through the media. I have heard wet drys are best as the bb receive the most oxygen. However wet drys pose problems for CO2 loss. Without a wet dry i would not have this problem, or would degassing still be a problem with an external BeanAnimal overflow. To generally increase oxygen levels and specifically near the bb could i not place an air stone beneath the media. So experienced sump users please tell me what you think, thank you!
 
I've also heard about the co2 loss on sumped systems. I can only guess that the co2 is not lost because of the actual sump, it is after all just another tank, but due to the flow down to the sump, if that makes sense. It's a thin layer of water getting smashed around basically, so I can understand how co2 could be lost this way. You could minimise the loss with smaller pipe work and minimal bends/elbows etc

I've baffled my sump into 4 sections for the media. No wet/dry section, the overflow pipe just goes directly into the first. First section is coarse, 2nd medium, 3rd fine and the last ceramic media. I used the type of media you buy for ponds, it's way cheaper then anything else I found, plus you can cut it to the exact dimensions you need. I could always add a layer of fine wool to give the water an extra polish if needed.

IMO I'd just drop the wet/dry idea, you'll still have plenty of biological filtration just with the ceramic and regular media and obviously you'd minimise any co2 loss.
 
I think the benefits negate any losses you might have from CO2 degassing, and CO2 will continue to degas at night when you want it to, especially if you have a system with high bioload. O2 saturation will always be better using a sump than a canister set up as well. One suggestion I would make though is to oversize your return pump and consider using a bigger overflow than required, as I think more flow can only be beneficial to aid in CO2 distribution for healthy plant growth.

Cheers
 
People have successfully run CO2 in planted tanks with sumps, however CO2 usage is generally very high due to CO2 losses in sump work, despite covers, clever pipe work etc.

To give you an idea how quickly and easy it is to remove CO2 from the water, when I....sorry a friend of mine...gassed his fish with extreme yellow drop checker, fish having "issues", just putting an air stone on for couple of minutes restored the fish to normal activity, "almost instantly". Note this was gassing off CO2 as opposed to adding O2 and water was already saturated with O2 from pearling plants. The drop checker changed back to blue in about 1/2-1 hour afterwards, which is the fastest I...sorry my friend...has ever seen a drop checker change.
 
So forgetting the wet dry (never did want it) will just the overflows in a BeanAnimal overflow cause major degassing of CO2? Because if so i would seriously consider forgetting a sump as i really don't want to spend loads on refilling CO2 every month or two and a canister won't really flood…
But i am determined to have a sump as it would be a new and interesting aspect of fish keeping, its just it also needs to be a sensible and viable option.
 
People have successfully run CO2 in planted tanks with sumps, however CO2 usage is generally very high due to CO2 losses in sump work, despite covers, clever pipe work etc.

To give you an idea how quickly and easy it is to remove CO2 from the water, when I....sorry a friend of mine...gassed his fish with extreme yellow drop checker, fish having "issues", just putting an air stone on for couple of minutes restored the fish to normal activity, "almost instantly". Note this was gassing off CO2 as opposed to adding O2 and water was already saturated with O2 from pearling plants. The drop checker changed back to blue in about 1/2-1 hour afterwards, which is the fastest I...sorry my friend...has ever seen a drop checker change.

Your friend should have used a sump Ian, that could never have happened with a sump system. ;)
 
Obviously having plenty of O2 for fish and the ability to quickly drive off excess CO2 in the event of a problem is great, but i am still concerned about CO2 usage, can anyone with a sump give some idea of how much co2 they get through??
 
overflows in a BeanAnimal overflow cause major degassing of CO2?
Hopefully not too much as these are supposed to operate with the tubes full of water, however water & air is of course "tumbling" down the 2nd tube, degassing as it goes, but at least not full flow. This type of overflow has been around for years, my mate kept marines in late 1980's with 3 overflow pipes, one in use, one overflow and one emergency if others blocked.
 
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