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Sump layout advice

Katfish

Member
Joined
21 Jan 2012
Messages
141
Location
Tunbridge Wells
I dont think I am getting the best from my sump and the way I have it set up so looking to change it around to get the max out of it.

This is for a freshwater tank. and the sump is 48"x15"18"

This is what I have come up with for my future set up of my sump.
Untitled_zps8298a8d4.png

Hoping someone out there can point me in the the right direction on how to get the max out of my sump
 
Yes that what I thought looking at it now but dont know what to do as I think I need more something but what I do not know.

If this was your sump how would you set it up chamber by chamber ?
 
Hi how big is your tank your running the sump on,and is the sump glass or acrylic..
 
Will you be having many fish in it..
 
Have you got a heavy fish load,the reason im asking is,are you familular with tracking,through a filter,as you said you want the best performance out of the sump,the way you have it now probably only 10% of the media will get used.. and most of the water will be dead space...at the moment you have upward flow runing through the filter which creates tracking,to get maximum you need to have horizontal flow (imagine a river)this is an easy fix..
 
I shall do some drawings for you to have a look at and put a video on to explain the tracking.basically water wants to take the easiest path out, you need to manipulate the water for more contact time in the media, if you can afford to then biohome(An upgraded sinthered glass) is the best biological media you will find...and very reasonable price of £12 a kilo..
Alfragrog is cheaper i know but the surface area is very poor and its heavy..If you cant afford to no worries we will work with what we have..give us a chance to do some drawings and i'll get back to you..:thumbup:
 
Hi question for you are you using C02 in the tank...
 
Hi all,
Theres a quick link but just type in google specific surface area filter media..biohome is probably 100 times greater..
You have to be a little bit careful with these figures, they are "true", but largely irrelevant in use, and media like Bioballs and Alfagrog work just as well in practice.

Have a look at this thread: <Alfagrog for reducing Nitrates? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>.

cheers Darrel
 
Yes the figure is a bit misleading. This is all depending on the pre filter of course,if the pre filter is removing all of the waste barring the fines stopping blockages in the bio side.. Then this figure will be high but if the biomedia becomes clogged causing tracking then its erelavent..until i made this statement i didnt realize there were two types of alfragrog i was under the impression that there was only E40...
Thanks for the links i shall take a look..
 
Hi all,
Then this figure will be high but if the biomedia becomes clogged causing tracking then its erelavent
Both tracking and clogging are the real issues, but for the same reason, they mean that the majority of media is oxygen starved and not contributing to filtration. I just half fill any canister filters with ceramic rings, and put a PPI10 or PPI20 sponge prefilter on. This is because I want flow speed through the media to be quick, high flow speeds mean more oxygen reaching the filter bacteria and that means more biological filtration.

This is also one advantage wet & dry trickle filters have over other filters, if the power goes off the media remains damp and oxygenated, preserving the filter bacteria. In a canister filter if the power goes off the media rapidly utilises all the available oxygen from the water in the filter.

cheers Darrel
 
This might interest you ,a couple of videos showing the difference with and without air..showing clearly the amount of media used..Im more interested with media contact time than high flow through the media increasing the the time the bacteria are incontact with the ammonia and perticularly nitrites..As you know the nitrosonomas are quicker to multiply than the nitrobacter so a fast turnover can reduce the amount nitobacter recieves as the nitrosonomas are quicker to take it..in my koi pond i always had some reading of nitrites until i reduced the flow through the filter using a filter like in the videos solved this and now i can feed as much as i like and never get any ammonia or nitrite readings..The nitrate reading rocketed up with proved to me this filter works to its max..
the filter in the video is whats on my planted tank,the only problem i have with it, is i need loads of co2 ..


 
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