building new sump/fuge

[criscash78]

I read that it is good to let your protein skimmer drain into your fuge. I plan on a 6 inch dsb with chaeto and a Maiden hair plant and some LR rubble. What I read said your feeding the fuge better quality water. This sounds like some horseshit to me but wanted to know if there was some truth to it javascript:void(0)

 

[rickytr23]

that looks good thats the same way my sump tank is setup and I have a phosphatePoly Reactor Multi Media w skimmer 10gal tank

 

[criscash78]

I finished the new sump got it in and added the little fishies 550 reactor with Bio plastics and a deepblue UV light. The only problem I believe I have is my tank is not cycling now. My ammonia and nitrite never leave 0 and my nitrates go from 30 to 60 ppm. The only reason they drop is because I do a 20% water change every other day. I'm thinking about buying one of those cycling products to see if there is a change.

 

[masterswimmer]

Ideally you want the dirtiest water going into your fuge, not already skimmed water. That logic is flawed.

Russ

 

[Imbarrie]

I dont see that as ideal?

The most effective way to remove unwanted things in your water is your skimmer.
To make your fuge do all that work then pass through the skimmer makes the whole process less efficient.

Depending on your pass through rates this whole discussion is probably moot since most people dont have 100% of their flow going through a skimmer then the fuge.

 

[masterswimmer]

Your skimmer is going to remove the DOC's regardless of the concentration. Your macro algae will thrive in nutrient rich water. Try keeping chaeto in distilled saltwater. Won't happen. The nutrients in the water are the 'food' for the macro.

Since the water is normally split between skimmer and fuge, it makes much more sense to put unskimmed water through your fuge.

Russ

 

[Imbarrie]

A skimmer wont work well in distilled water either.

The way I view my sump is to prioritize the skimmer since it is more efficient at removing DOCs than the macro. The macro is there to help remove the things the skimmer cannot, not the other way around.
If the algae is tasked with removing things the skimmer can remove then you are not utilizing your skimmer efficiently and you are wasting money running it.

Unless you are cultivating pods, you are not trying to get your macro to thrive, you are trying to get it to remove undesirable chemicals from the water. I would much rather have a fuge with slow growing macro than a fuge with abundantly growing macro, it means there is less crap in the water to remove and a sign of good water parameters.

JMO, dont want anyone to view this as a pissing contest. Many reefers here have their own way of running sumps. And, unless you have all your flow directed to these components, then the actual efficiency gains are on an OCD scale.

 

[masterswimmer]

A skimmer wont work well in distilled water either.

Correct....but please show me where I said a skimmer would work with distilled water.

Again, a SPLIT overflow with dirty, unskimmed water feeding the fuge will be a more efficient fuge than one run with skimmed water. The skimmer should also receive the dirty, unprocessed (not fuge water), water direct from the DT.

Russ

 

[Imbarrie]

Ideally you want the dirtiest water going into your fuge, not already skimmed water. That logic is flawed.

Try keeping chaeto in distilled saltwater. Won't happen.

Your motivation seems to favor growing macro with unfiltered tank water. Maybe your fuge covers a much larger area proportionate to the DT, idealy that should be the case and I would completely agree if I had a 75 DT and a 50 fuge. But, myself and most other hobbyists I know have miniscule DT to fuge ratios. In these cases the efficiency of a fuge is nowhere close to adequate compared to a skimmer. In some cases not even noticable other than pod production. So untreated tank water going through there is filtering nothing.
Based on this, I prefer my sump to follow a more linear flow favoring the more efficient process first to condition the water.
I dont think anybody has a sump that can filter water to the extent it replicates distilled saltwater. So mentioning that macro could not grow in a sterile medium does not really address the sump of a running tank.

 

[masterswimmer]

I couldn't disagree with you more. Even if you ran a 1000g DT and a 1g fuge, the water supplied to the fuge should be the water coming directly from your DT, not from your skimmer.

Remember, the overflow from the DT should ideally be split. Say 50% to the skimmer and 50% to the fuge (ratio is adjustable depending upon flow rate). The skimmer couldn't possibly process 100% of the water on a single pass anyway. Why not send that water to the fuge, where the macro algae would benefit from it most?

Russ

 

[Imbarrie]

I think it depends on the setup more than anything.
Obviously the extreme example of a 1000g DT and a 1g fuge would be a ridiculous installation.
But a realistic example of a 75g DT and a 5g fuge section of a 30g sump would yield a level of nutrient export from your macro that has a 12 hour light cycle and flows around plants using their growth rate to uptake nutrients that cannot possibly compete compared to a correctly sized and adjusted protein skimmer yielding cups of frothy schmeg on a regular basis running 24/7.
It would grow some great macro at a rapid rate and you would have a great pod supply. That is wonderful and beneficial, but not efficient.
It also would not work for an external skimmer.

If you said 90/10 I would agree, but 50/50 is far fetched to me.

 

[masterswimmer]

The point is, it just doesn't matter what size or ratio you're using. The FACT remains, the fuge will run better with dirtier water than with skimmed water.

I've never once said that a fuge should be used in place of a skimmer. If used in addition to a skimmer, run it with the dirty water.

Russ

 

[cyberfox2200]

I finished the new sump got it in and added the little fishies 550 reactor with Bio plastics and a deepblue UV light. The only problem I believe I have is my tank is not cycling now. My ammonia and nitrite never leave 0 and my nitrates go from 30 to 60 ppm. The only reason they drop is because I do a 20% water change every other day. I'm thinking about buying one of those cycling products to see if there is a change.

if your getting nitrates that keep building and your ammonia and nitrites are 0 then you are cycled if you were not getting trates then ide worry about the cycle and please dont waste money on products that claim to cycle i learned the hard way its a waste