New Sump Idea?

[Alex Brown]

OK this probly wont make much sence, im a total noob.

I have had my tank a month, before that I had never kept fish. I went to the Maldives and decided I had to have a reef tank of my own and bought all the gear the day I got back.

I have a 55G tank (240L) and as far as I am aware I am limited to the number of fish I can have correct?

I have contemplated setting up a small quarentine tank, how small can I get away with for tiny fish? I have one of those knarly LED's to put over it for lighting and for new corals etc.

Secondly, when I am not quarentining new items, would there be any advantage of linking this smaller tank, to the display tank so the water flows throughout?

I am not sure how this would work yet, maybe just plumb it inline with the external filter? I thought that if there is a higher water volume, might make things easier and less prone to fluctuating water conditions.

Whats your thoughts? Plumb another tank inline so that when its not being used for quarentining there is larger water volume? I was planning to fill it with live rock for filtration. ( I understand it couldnt be pplumed in line while being used to quarentine)

Thanks!

 

[fishlover500]

there isn't much point in having a quarantinig tank if it's attached to the main tank.

 

[Alex Brown]

as i said right at the end, "i understand it couldnt be plummed in line while being used to quarentine"...

 

[SkiFletch]

I wouldn't do it. Sure the larger water volume is nice, but you really want to keep your QT completely seperate from the display in case you get waterborne pathogens. Doesn't make sense if your fish get sick from a waterborne pathogen to move them to QT that had the same water as the display, the pathogen could easily be there too... Truly the only way to make sure your QT is safe is to have it completely seperate from the display...

 

[garybuk]

I think he means useing it as a sump after hes finshed useing it as a QT? Sorry if im roung!!!


and i wouldnt think a filter would work! tho im 100%sure what you mean sorry

 

[Alex Brown]

i got ya, that makes alot of sence!

so when maturing that quarentine tank, im guessing you use fresh RO water with the salt mix, and add in a piece of cured rock from the display? doesnt this take a few weeks to mature ready for fish though?

yes i did mean to use it as a mini sump afterwards.

obveously if there were infection during curing, you would clean the tank out. but then couldnt you just link it up to make the display tanks water volume larger?

or, if we forget the quarentining all together for a moment, could you rig a small tank inline, and put the skimmer down there, and use that for water changes etc? i know its not an official "sump" but would be as close as i can get. i cant drill into my tank now its set up.

 

[CageUK]

I'm not an expert on these things (I don't and can't have a sump) but you would need something like a HOB overflow box (the syphon type) then use your cannister filter as the return pump.
If you set it up like that then it would become a sump in the true sense of the word with your equipment in etc.
If it's only a small tank, then I would think the extra volume wouldn't make a great deal of difference but it depends of course on what size tank you are talking about.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah it's gonna be difficult to use it as a sump if you can't drill the tank. I'd just keep them seperate, that's how I do it...

 

[Alex Brown]

ok well i have space for 50L i would say. thanks for your advice cage!

so for somebody who does know about sumps or has one, how hard would it be to make an "auto topoff" sump unit using this method, without the drilled holes?

so the overflow box fills up then dumps into the "sump" which is then pulled back up into display tank by the filter correect?

wouldnt it work the same if it was in line with the external filter, or would it have to be a sealed tank to keep the water pressure?

 

[CageUK]

ok well i have space for 50L i would say. thanks for your advice cage!

so for somebody who does know about sumps or has one, how hard would it be to make an "auto topoff" sump unit using this method, without the drilled holes?

so the overflow box fills up then dumps into the "sump" which is then pulled back up into display tank by the filter correect?

wouldnt it work the same if it was in line with the external filter, or would it have to be a sealed tank to keep the water pressure?

If I'm right in my understanding then it would mean that one of the tanks would have to syphon into the other then get topped up by the canister. This of course would be a dangerous thing to do as the minute the pump stops working for any reason, the tank that was syphoning would just empty itself. The only way I could see that a setup like this would work is if the 'sump' was higher than the tank and was drilled with a gravity fed overflow return into the tank and fed by the canister filter... sort of like the main tank being the sump for the small tank if you know what I mean. You would have to make provision to prevent the drilled overflow in the sump from blocking.

 

[SkiFletch]

You need to use an overflow box as a drain line and a return pump in the sump to push water back up to the display. The pump pushes water up which spills over into the overflow box and drains back down to the sump. check out www.melevsreef.com for more info