Sump Plumbing

The outside pipe has been extended with legs all the way down to the coupling.? This lets water go through the filter up to the suction area.I used a rubber pipe coupling between the two pipes.? I just cut a slice that gave me an O ring between the two pipes.? It's very tight.? I used a screwdriver and a mallet to get it in.? It's not going to leak.The adjustment tube can also be used as a safety.? Reroute it back inside the overflow and set the end of the tube to the maximum hight you want water to rise.? If water covers the end of the tube it switches the drain tube to max suction and it will quickly pull the excess out of the overflow.View attachment 450View attachment 449View attachment 448View attachment 452
 
Do you see the check valve hanging from the plastic tube?? If the water lever rises and covers the tip of that check valve it keeps air from being sucked in.? That switches the drain to full siphon.? It's going to suck past any filter clogging.? You can test it by covering the end with your finger.? The flow suddenly increases by a factor of 3 or 4.? You will be able to hear a sudden increase in drain noise.? It's only one layer of filter media.? It's not like it's going to plug solidly very fast.? I've left the filter media on there for weeks with no change in water level.?
 
So this thing is going to get hard plumbed at some point. I had some sort of bloom or something in my tank last night. And while trying to do water changes and saving a fish that I think is being bullied I discovered that the new shorter drain hose I finally got is leaking. Not at the bulkhead but somewhere in the hose itself. Possibly where the end connector is "welded" to the hose. It's only a drip and goes straight into my fuge so I'm not too worried about it right now. I'm more concerned with what has gone on in the tank itself.I came home from work last night with the tank cloudy and smelled kind of fishy. The water has been sparkling since I set up the tank and let it cycle. I noticed that one of my? Cardinals was up near the surface and thought the worst. I set up a "hospital" tank for him and put him in it as soon as it warmed up. he seems to be fine now and I am keeping him there for a few days. This is the one I think is being bullied by another cardinal. The other cardinal and firefish in the tank are acting normal.So at this point I have done a 10 gal water change, completely cleaned out the sump and skimmer and I am running carbon in a reactor to try to get the water back in check. I did water test last night and nothing was out of line.? Anyone have any suggestions if you're still following along?On a good note my new Octo Varios 2 return pump is now on the tank. So far I love it.
 
Sounds like a bacterial bloom. ?I had plenty of them when my tank was newly setup. ?I had one bloom that was so bad, you couldn't see past an inch into the tank. ?The fish seemed to weather it just fine and nothing bad ever showed up on any water test I did or my LFSs did. ?I added a?UV sterilizer which cleared up the water over night, but the bacteria was stronger and eventually won over the UV. ?It didn't stop for me until I pulled the pellets. ?Having lots of bacteria without anything for it to feed on (near zero nitrates and phosphates) seems to cause these. ?My tank would go from clear to completely cloudy over night! ?Have you been adding any bacteria or running bio pellets? ?I can tell you this... Don't try and add anything during a bloom. ?I tried and lost a couple of different fish. ?Although it didn't seem to harm the fish that were already there, it seemed hard on fish to acclimate to it over an hour drip.
 
Hmmm...you might shut the pump off, remove your hose and find the leak and them maybe add a dab of pvc glue on it to see if it stops the leak.So all your fish are accounted for? Sounds like something died or a bloom like Eric said. Sounds like your on the right track to recovery either way. How does it look today?Sweet! I just got my Octo Varios 8 yesterday and can't wait to hook it up this week. Do you have yours hooked up to an APEX or just using the controller it cam with???- you need a build thread..lol :)
 
I also forgot to mention, you can save your water for water changes. ?You won't be able to stay ahead of a bloom. ?Best thing is to stop adding bacteria and let it go away on it's own. ?I know UV sterilizers are not cheap, but it does help get it gone faster.
 
Posted by: integra3g?Sounds like a bacterial bloom. ?I had plenty of them when my tank was newly setup. ?I had one bloom that was so bad said:
That's kind of what I thought but find it kind of odd that I have hardly any nitrates. I tend to feed a little heavy and it's?hard to get three little fish in 60+ gallons of water to eat all of it. LOL I haven't added any bacteria?and I'm not using biopellets.?
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And yes I need to move over to a build thread at this point. really nothing that interesting though.
 
Wow still cloudy huh...how many gallons is your system?I don't think mine has ever been cloudy except when I vacuum sanded and that is just dust. I replaced my carbon and Seachem Purigen bag last night and my water was crystal clear this morning.
 
Posted by: mossjer?And yes I need to move over to a build thread at this point. really nothing that interesting though.? ? said:
I think anything and everything is interesting in this hobby. Seeing gadgets/equipment people add, ?tweaks to their systems and anything that might give me an idea for something or help solve a problem. Nothing is too small/uninteresting for me :)
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Display is 65 gal and probably 75-80 total water volume. How long do these things usually last? I don't remember ever having this issue in my old tanks but I used completely nasty true live rock to cycle those. and it has been close to nine years since I set up a new tank. Hence all the noob questions and the others were all in ones with no sump. So this part is new to me.
 
I haven't ever had one that made the water cloudy so new to me too, maybe Eric or someone can give some details on that. Does your skimmer seem to be working ok and pulling out junk? Have you dosed anything new in your tank??Sweet, look forward to a build thread. I am waiting for mine to migrate so I can update it. :p?
 
By any chance have you tested your NH3 / NH4 (Ammonia), NO2 (Nitrite) since the cloudy water?Might check tonight just to be sure things are still in check there...?
 
Posted by: mossjer?Display is 65 gal and probably 75-80 total water volume. How long do these things usually last? I don't remember ever having this issue in my old tanks but I used completely nasty true live rock to cycle those. and it has been close to nine years since I set up a new tank. Hence all the noob questions and the others were all in ones with no sump. So this part is new to me.? ? said:
There you have it! ?I also started with dry rock which means no life support to help with bacteria. ?The bacteria will die off and settle in and start helping your dry rock become live. ?I tried Purigen, carbon, water changes, heavy skimming, no lights, but it just had to run its course. ?I suspect none of the major things we test for will show anything.
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The skimmer seems to be working so so for the last few days, I haven't been dosing anything but it kind of went nuts a couple of times and my ATO kicked in pumping a little more?RO water than I would have liked. The salinity didn't seem to take much of a hit though. The only changes I made before this happened was adding the ATO, and I dumped some Trigger pods into the sump and display over the weekend. I am using a sterilite container for the top off water, I wouldn't think this would leach anything. Or maybe the pods didn't like the tank and all croaked on me. Although I'm pretty sure the fish took care of most of those.And yes the rock was in the holding vat of the LFS but seemed to be pretty void of life.The build thread is under way in the small tanks section.
 
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