skimmer sump stuff

[nemo1991]

so in my garage i have a like 30 gallon? wet/dry sump....with the bioballs and stuff, and an overflow and a rio 3100 as a return pump.......sooo.........i want to put it on my 55 for a week or two......it has a skimmer in it rated for a 250 or 200 i dont remember mines only rated for a 75 gallon, so if i put that in and hook that all up will that help lower amonia and all that stuff?

[nemo1991]

no one?

[nunch]

yeah, if you put the right media in it like ammo chips or something similar

[coral reefer]

Why do you just want to set it up for a week or two?
In my opinion, any sort of additional filtration and water flow is essential to your tanks overall success, leading to the lasting health of your livestock, more importantly!
I would skip the bioballs, unless you are willing and dedicated to religiously clean the bioballs periodically to reduce the chances of nitrate and phosphate buildup!
You should ask yourself the question as to why you have ammonia in your water????
Ammonia is normally not evident once the cycling is complete, unless you have die off. Normally, the amount of biological filtration combined with the mechanical filtration used in our tanks is sufficent to remove ammonia and nitrite buildup.

[nemo1991]

the week or two is just how long this is probably going to be set up for....teh amonia and such....is from the die off loke a month ago!!! of all those corals and a couple fish : /

[Phayes]

if your going through the hassle of setting up a sump with a new skimmer and such, you may as well leave it up and running, it should be much more efficient than your current setup. However, the ammonia thing, your just going to have to let it cycle and let nature take its course. Deal with the end-product of nitrate, cause trying to deal with ammonia is like trying to catch up to a ferrari on a bicycle: next to impossible and definitely not worth it. But if you let that ferrari run out of gas... well you get the point (not the best analogy, i know). Wait until it finishes cycling and you have nitrates... They are MUCH easier to deal with. You could use things like ammo-lock which just turns the ammonia into a non harmful state, which can then be converted to nitrites.
Bah, i'm rambling, but let it cycle, and if your setting up a sump/skimmer, do it for the right reasons and for the long term.

[Jason McKenzie]

Personally, If you know the cause of the die off and it wasn't a build up of ammonia, I wouldn't bother. let the tank cycle through this spike, it will come out better in the long run. Plus if you have all this additional filtration and then remove it you may be left with a tank that can not handle the nitrate cycle on it's own

J

[nemo1991]

i ment i am going to leave it up until it cycles and its done and wait a week (while still having it on there, and add that to my 135 so that the waters will combine.

[Jason McKenzie]

What you will likely do is cycle the sump/wetdry then when you remove it the de-nitrating bacteria will be removed as well. Then the Tank bacteria population will not be able to coupe with your bio-load and you will experience another cycle.

J

[nemo1991]

wait so if i am just going to add it all to the 135 i should not do the wet/dry sump?