Sump help

[FishyReef]

Hi everyone

My sump has been up and running for a few months now. Its a very simple sump - 20g high w/ a sock filter, live rubble, protein skimmer, return pump, and a ball of chaeto. I don't have any baffles largely due to cost at this point. I plan to add a refugium later, but just don't have the time to do so right now. Lately I've been noticing a lot of the chaeto getting sucked up into my skimmer air intake, and (probably not coincidentally) finding a lot of detritus on the floor of the sump. I tried putting a few snails in there to deal with the diatoms that were growing on the sides of the tank, but one got stuck in the skimmer air intake and died, and the other hasn't been seen since I put it in. I'm afraid if I put any critters in there, they will just get in the air intake or return pump. Is there anything I can do to keep the chaeto from wrecking havoc w/ my skimmer, and anything I can do to help reduce the amount of detritus on the bottom of the sump? I've been siphoning it out, but its such a slow siphon that it really doesn't seem to pick up much....

Today is a major maintenance day, so hoping I can switch things up in the sump a little bit to function more effectively!

 

[Smitty]

When you do you water changes, I use as turkey baster to suck the detritus off the bottom...i also have small hermit crabs in my sump/fuge to get rid of some of that stuff. If you can't move the cheato to another spot in the sump, to keep it from getting into the pump, maybe try placing some sort of filter pad or sponge in the front of the pump intake.

 

[austingunkel]

You could probably got the glass, have it cat and buy silicone for under 20 $ at home depot or a like store. Then you could install baffles and avoid these issues

 

[Bifferwine]

Use plexiglass. Lowes and Home Depot will cut it for free and it only costs a few bucks. You can probably find a piece that fits from their scrap pile.

 

[FishyReef]

When I was first setting up my sump I looked at both the plexiglass and regular glass from home depot and was under the impression it wouldn't work because (a) I couldn't use plexiglass baffles with a glass sump (no way to stick the two materials together) and (b) the glass from home depot is far less than a quarter inch thick (I thought I had to have at least 1/4" thick baffles or else they would break from water pressure.... I've priced out the baffles and the cheapest way to go is to have them cut by glass cages and fed-ex'ed, but I just don't have $100 to spend right now on them (and they are like 3x that price if I go local)...

If I don't add baffles right now, would walling off the chaeto with egg crate help? I have a ton of egg crate lying around already....

 

[Kelz88]

You could probs cage it into some eggcrate, but you'll have to trim it... a lot

 

[austingunkel]

I'm pretty sure you can use plexiglass it just takes quite a bit of silicone

 

[Bifferwine]

Plexiglass works fine with a glass sump for the purpose of baffles. They don't need to be 100% water tight, and silicone holds them in place.

 

[yote]

Plexiglass works fine with a glass sump for the purpose of baffles. They don't need to be 100% water tight, and silicone holds them in place.

Biff is right.Plexi will work.Just get the thicker stuff so it don't bend from the pressure.
When you silicone it in,run big beads on both sides of the baffle so the bead itself will hold it in place.

One thing I did to deal with the detritus in my sump,was put a small powerhead in there to keep it in suspension. That way my skimmer could pick it up.What got back to the display wasn't enough to hurt anything.

 

[little_fish]

for my sump I just siliconed together two pieces of the plexiglass so that it was thick enough

 

[FishyReef]

Awesome, thanks guys!! Okay, looking forward to another home depot trip then! And that's a great idea about adding a powerhead to keep the detritus in suspension, I'm definitely going to do that as soon as I have the chaeto out of the way. Any advice on how to get all of the water out of the sump so that I can put the baffles in? I had to take the stand apart to get the sump inside and now that its in there is no taking it out! I can't even remove the protein skimmer cup (let alone skimmer) because it is too big to fit between the top of the sump and the top of the door opening (though I can prop it up enough to clean out the cup with a cloth or paper towels so that it stays clean). And how long does silicone take to dry? I'm thinking I'll need to shut my sump down for a few days and keep my rock in a tub with a powerhead while I do the work?

 

[austingunkel]

Hope it all works out keep us up to date

 

[yote]

Awesome, thanks guys!! Okay, looking forward to another home depot trip then! And that's a great idea about adding a powerhead to keep the detritus in suspension, I'm definitely going to do that as soon as I have the chaeto out of the way. Any advice on how to get all of the water out of the sump so that I can put the baffles in? I had to take the stand apart to get the sump inside and now that its in there is no taking it out! I can't even remove the protein skimmer cup (let alone skimmer) because it is too big to fit between the top of the sump and the top of the door opening (though I can prop it up enough to clean out the cup with a cloth or paper towels so that it stays clean). And how long does silicone take to dry? I'm thinking I'll need to shut my sump down for a few days and keep my rock in a tub with a powerhead while I do the work?

The tube usually says it takes 32-36 hours for silicon to completely set ( I think ). Personally,I'd give it at least 48 hours just to be on the safe side. So yeah,you'll need to shut your sump down for a day or so.