Diy Sump (with Overflow Box) Or Hob Refugium?

[rabbut]

UGF's are hard to run in a reef tank without becomming nitrate factories. You need access to all areas of the plate to remove the rubbish, or it will do a poorly maintained wet/dry filter and become a nitrate factory with all the rotting rubbish in the bed TBH, your best bet of getting debris out is to adjust flow to kick it all into the water column and then use mechanical filtration to remove it. You then clean the mechanical filter weekly to remove the waste

 

[Alex Brown]

Can you tell me how to do a water change when a sump is installed?

Do you turn off the sump input and output, then take water from the sump and replace with new salt water? Im confused.

 

[SkiFletch]

for the convenience of using a siphon I take water out of the display tank. When the sump runs dry I turn off the sump pump and continue draining from the display. Once I've drained all the water I want, I turn on the sump pump again and start adding the makeup water into the sump as it runs dry.

 

[Alex Brown]

Got ya.

What are your views on distrupting the tank to drill it and add the new stand allowing for a larger sump, when I am 50% sure that im moving to a new home in September and will have to do so again.

Im concidering using an overflow box with mini sump until September. But if you dont think it will cause the setup too much disturbance I will take it apart now too.

 

[SkiFletch]

That's a tough call. I'd say wait, cause the plumbing will be a royal pita, more so than the drilling if the tank is already setup. The drilling really won't disturb the livestock much, but you'll be banging your head against the wall in no time trying to get the plumbing right. Best do it when you move, keep the stock in a bin, horse trough, or giant rubbermaid tub while you seutp the new stand and drill the tank