Sump ideas for my RSM250

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Cameron

I find the skimmer works great when the water level is consistent...unfortunately all the evaporation shows up in the back chambers. I have thought about adding a baffle or something...

Hence why I'm either going to add an ATO, or a Sump w/ato.

I do like the skimmer, it takes a while to break in...start with the air closed for a few days then open it every couple hours. The stuff it pulls is rancid...but I have been tempted by an in sump skimmer...

My thoughts on it are....

Adding an overflow where the evap fans are or where the current skimmer is....then the return will come back in the accessory ports on the right hand side....thoughts?

I think I'm going to hook up a tunze auto top off. I will put the sensors in the skimmer chamber and the freshwater tank inside the stand, or in a tall vase next to the stand. This will keep the water level stable in that chamber.

[spawn]

I've often wanted to run a sump on my setup but everyone seems to think it'll be to hard or risky to setup.I run a tunze ATO through the hole for the accessory plumbing. It keeps the water level perfect in DT. as well as in all of the rear chambers. I still also use just the stock skimmer and it seems to do the job. The sludge it pulls out of the tank is like a thick cake icing consistency, I've found that the water level has to be about as high as you can get it. My setup was started on May 9 2010, I started vodka dosing Oct. 25 due to a spike in No3 likely due to eccesive coral feeding. I've changed a bit more rock work No3 is now down from 20ppm -5ppm on a sps dominated setup. Will try and get some new shots up later tonight or minyanna. IMO the stock system works quite well with floss beneath the inside of your weir to keep stuff from being picked up by your skimmer.

[spawn]

P.S. the nitrates had always been @ 0 prior to mid oct. I know My impatience for growth led to the spike. If anyone has practical ideas on how to setup a reactor with bio pellets please post.

[Sean]

I'm with you on that mistake Spawn, the stuff I used was for larger aquariums and I got a little excited to see my coral puff up around feeding time.

[Cameron]

I do have bio pellets running on mine...

What do you mean you have floss running below the weir?

[spawn]

If you remove your skimmer collection cup, cut two pieces of floss one large one for the left side & about 1/2 that size for the right, kinda tightly wedge them in under the weir to the back & side glass effectively catching all debris that pass through the weir. It'll clean up particulate from your water column & limit the amount of future maintenance you have in terms of cleaning in the sump portion of the stock setup & give you better function on the stock skimmer. It works well. Now How did you hook up the reactor for those pellets, Pics would be awesome.

[Cameron]

PIcs will come.

I have thought about adding rubble/crushed coral to the left chamber to promote pods population....thoughts?