sump question. - Equipment

glen_c · 10-23-2009, 11:47 PM

i'm trying to convert over from a goldfish tank to a goldie/light-medium planted tank. i had a diy trickle filter/ sump thing because of the messy goldfish i have. But now i hear its not ideal. My tank is all drilled for it and everything and i like the clean look of having the equipment not in the tank. So, i figured theres got to be a few people running sumps here and i wanted to ask if theres anything i can do to get the most out of it?

ghengis · 10-24-2009, 01:06 AM

Just a thought...could you run your drilled system thru a canister? I hear exactly what you mean about keeping your tank clean, but what you have heard is right...using a wet-dry/trickle/sump set up isn't ideal...

Although, if you didn't intend to use CO2, you may get away with it...

glen_c · 10-24-2009, 02:48 AM

thanks, if i could it all over again i'd like to run a canister. But, i've already invested in the pump, making the overflow box, drilling the tank, buying the diamond hole saw, the bio balls, pipes, etc. my tank is set up with a 1" outflow through-glass overflow box in the middle and 1/2" return inflows on either side. i think the misses would freak if i told her i was tossing all that and doing something different.

as far as co2 go, i'm only trying to grow moss and anubias, but i really want them to be nice, lush and healthy too.

hows this flourish excel i keep hearing about? would it give my plants a boost? or would it be voided out by my wet/dry setup?

btw: my lighting is an archaea 2x37watt t8's. i dont know the temperature but i know theyre by ada. the tank is also outside where it gets natural daylight for the later half of the afternoon.

Diana K · 10-24-2009, 10:57 AM

Excel will help, and it does not evaporate like CO2 does. It does not work well for some plants, though.
Anacharis and Valisneria come to mind.

ZID ZULANDER · 11-03-2009, 01:48 AM

You could use a canister filter but just reverse the tubes. meaning the filter would pump up through the over flow if you have a built in one. There are ways to do it. Depending on the plants that you want to keep you could still use the sump methond.

geeks_15 · 11-03-2009, 07:25 AM

I think you should be fine with your current setup if you only want to grow moss and anubias. Those plants will grow in the most basic setup. I've grown java fern, java moss, and anubias in tanks with the single strip light that came with the aquarium hood, with HOB filters splashing, and with sponge filters. They will grow more slowly than if you were injecting CO2 and probably more slowly than if you had less water surface disturbance, but it shouldn't affect the health of the plants. These grow slowly anyway, so I don't think it would make much difference as compared to simply switching to a cannister filter. I would keep you current setup and just add the moss and anubias.

If you are wanting to grow more demanding plants, I think the trickle filter part will cause you to lose more CO2 than the sump. I have a sump on my 75 gallon high tech (see my journal linked below) and CO2 loss has been negligible.

glen_c · 11-03-2009, 05:06 PM

aha thanks, your setup is really nice btw. i was thinking of just reworking my sump so theres no more trickling. just chambers for the floss, then bio media, then back up. i think that should work without me spending too much money?

ghengis · 11-03-2009, 06:36 PM

I have always wondered, with sumps, if somehow diffusing the CO2 into the return chamber, rather than the tank, might not be a little more effective...? So the diffused gas gets to spend a more time in the water column, before being (potentially) gassed off at the sump inlet chamber... Would that be worth a try??

geeks_15 · 11-03-2009, 07:18 PM

In my setup, from the sump the pump pushes water through an inline CO2 diffuser and into the tank. Its working well so far.

adechazal · 11-04-2009, 09:58 AM

Backing up Jeremy, I also run a sump on an Oceanic 180g with dual overflows and compressed CO2. There are pros and cons to whichever setup you use, I chose a tank with a sump in case I wanted to convert to salt water one day. I now know that sumps are a great place to hide all the equipment but the biggest benefit in my mind is that evaporation only affects the sump level, not the tank.
Aaron