Need help building a sump

[zerocool5878]

Ok I am all ears for any help you can provide me with.
About 2 weeks ago I was walking by my LFS and saw a 24 gal nano saltwater reef setup through the window. I went in and started to talking to the kid that was working with the fish. To my surprise this kid was very knowledgeable and I came home and searched the net to verify the things he said. He was for the most part pretty good. He said his dad has had a sw tank since he was very little so I guess he learned some things from him.
Anyway he sold me a 29gal biocube setup. He told me to go home and set it up and bring him the water test results after a week. So i did. I went back and he gave me a ph buffer to bring the ph up from 7.7 to over 8.0. he said the other stuff was good. The next day I went back and he gave me 4 small damsels and 15 pounds of live rock.
He told me to place them in the tank and test once a week and record these results for him. He said the ammonia will spike and drop them the nitates with spike and drop he said with the live rock the tank should cycle in about 4 weeks. He said when they are both down to zero to go back and he will replace the damsels with nicer fish and we can start talking about corals.
I have a few questions.
Is everything im doing close to correct. The fish seem to be doing well for now.
If the kid told me something wrong please let me know i wont hold it agaist him as he is really nice kid and he isn't trying to push everything at me all at once to get a sale.
I was wondering about building a sump for this tank. I was thinking that after the tank cycles I could hook up a sump with a protein skimmer to expand the water volume in place of doing my first 25% water change. I have the room to add maybe a 10-20 gallon sump maybe bigger. But I really don't know how to do it. I would like to build it and be ready to hook it up after the tank cycles. I was thinking about keeping the damsels in for an additional week after adding the sump. Any info on how to build and connect this would be great. If anyone has pictures of how to do this that would also help alot.

Thanks in advance
Mike

[dlaclo]

everything he has said sounds correct. the only thing i worry about is the damsels as they will most liley survive but it is unnessicary to use them and is extremly hard on the fish. You can use just the live rock for cycling and i am pretty sure that is how just about everyone here would recomend you to do it... IMO as for the sump i have one but it might be easier for someone else to give you a detailed discription on how to make one and set it up. Good luck and sorry that I am not any more help...

[coral reefer]

Hi Mike and welcome to 3reef first of all!
Glad to see you here and delving into the saltwater hobby!
Their is a skimmer that you can purchase that fits right in the back of your 29gallon tank. Is this a Oceanic bio-cube? Sapphire Aquatics carries the skimmer that is made specifically for this tank, as my sisters boyfirend has the same thing.
As for the sump...IMO, I would wait on that and focus your attention on the basics and everything that is associated with being a knowledgeable and successful reefer! With your tank, I feel that a sump would be more of a hinderence than a good thing to incorporate into your bio-cube.
I am a true believer of a sump as I have one on my 125gallon reef tank, but with the small sized tank and being a novice, I would forgo the sump for now...but I would go and get a skimmer and get rid of the bio-balls IMO!
Best of luck and let us know how you make out!

[geoxman]

I would say just the opposite. The more water volume the better! I have never owned or heard of Sapphire aquatics but after a quick google the skimmer seems to be ok?? but what can 6-11 inch skimmer really do? If you had a sump then you could get a nice ER or Octopus 150 for your system. You could also incorporate some sort of a refugium in the sump.
I made my own sump and copied some of the ideas/plans from here
NEWsumps

I would just drill a hole in the back of that wet/dry install a bulkhead and plumb it up to a custom sump-good luck

[djnzlab1]

HI,
if you can hide a sump the more the better. I found a nice large blue plastic tub its huge it has rope handles and it would make an awsome sump, i would add 5 inches of sand and a pile of cheep nice coral dead rock, your live rock in the tank would cycle the cheeper dead rock in a month or two,most lps cycle dead rock and sell it as llive, I ve seen them use cow water troughs to cycle rock with a couple power heads and one piece of live rock it doubles their profit. hang the skimmer on the tub get a gravity feed over flow and a nice pump return, the extra twenty gallons of water will help stabalize your water quality so your nano will actually be a 50 + gallon system. Less likely to crash and live critter will live in the sump and may get caught up in the return to feed the fish. I keep feeder saltwater shrimp, large conch, and numerous snails in my sump I avoid crabs,starfish the can and will eat the good flauna. They call them muck buckets at the horse supply stores any feed store should have one. its runs 9.99 on line

I love DSB and live rock , I also try to use a little algae in the sump with a light , I found a cheep light timer at lowes and my tank lights and the sump all cycle 12 on and off .
The more water in the loop the better.
Doug

[zerocool5878]

Hey thanks for the replies.

Yes it is a Oceanic bio-cube. My main concerns were to get a protein skimmer and to increase the water capacity so it would hopefully be easier for me top control the water. I have a 20gal long tank that I was thinking of converting to a sump like this one.


Melevsreef.com - DIY Glass Sump & Refugium

If anyone knows a step by step process for this that would be a big help in my desion to do a sump or just add the skimmer.

The basics that I need to know is where the holes should be placed in my main tank to let water in and out, exact placement and size for the baffles and how to figure out how much water will flow back into the sump if I had a pwr failure. If it wont be too involved and cost a whole lot I wiould go this route. My budget would be about $200-$300 for the sump complete with skimmer, plumbing and pumps.

Let me know what you think



Thanks again
Mike

[RAVEN]

Melevsreef.com is a great site. I built a 30g sump based on his Model F design. Its very simple, easy to make and works great. Your 20g Long would be perfect for it. All you need are some acrlyllic sheets (which can be purchased at home depot) a score to cut the sheets and some Aquarium Silicone to glue the sheets in place. On that design your skimmer and line running from the overflow would go on the Right side with the refugium in the middle and the return pump to the tank on the Left side. Since you already have the tank, it shouldnt cost more than $30 for the supplies.

I would recommend getting an Urchin skimmer to use in the sump. It has a small foot print and would be perfect for a small sump.

To prevent back flow in power failure, I use a swing type check valve in the return line. A cheaper method would be drill a small hole in the return nozzle just below the water line to break the back flow.

If you decide to build a sump you will still need a skimmer. The sump is not a substitute for a skimmer.

Hope this helps some!

[zerocool5878]

OK that all sounds easy enough but what about getting the water to and from my main tank how would that be done? Would I put holes through the back of the bio cube or would i be placing hoses draped into the tank. I still want the tank to look as if its a noraml cube without extra hoses sticking out the top.

[RAVEN]

I don't know anything about drilling an acryllic tank, but you may have to use an overflow box to get water to the sump and then you will need a return pump like a mag 7-9 or quiet one 3000 or 4000.

[MDeth]

Yo zero...forgive me if its a different person, but were you in =[Yahaa]= for CoD2? If so, whats up man?

Even if youre not him, good luck with the hobby Its one of the most exciting and fulfulling things i've been a part of.