Bought a used tank...help!

[sberto]

No little hose.

 

[lmforbis]

The tube is hard plastic. Here is a pic of mine. It is the same stock Marineland setup you have. The tube sticking out of the top roughly center of the pic is there to help with the noise.

 

[lmforbis]

Another way to decrease noise is to decrease the return rate of the return pump. If it doesn't already have one you can add a gate valve to the plumbing to fine tune the flow rate. If you do this it will change the water level in your sump so you might need to make some adjustments.

 

[sberto]

Ok. No tube so I'll add one. There is a valve on my return. About half open

 

[lmforbis]

Another thing that may help. Looking at the pic of your sump, it looks like there are a couple 90 degree turns in the plumbing from the tank to the sump. If you replace them with 2 45s it makes the turn smoother and there is often less trapped air resulting in less noise.

 

[lmforbis]

Another place where there may be a noise source is the return line. There is a small hole on the inside of the 90 degree turn at the top of the return line. The hole is a siphon break and very necessary. I found water sprayed out of that hole and hit the side of the overflow causing a lot of noise. I tied a piece of panty hose around the 90 preventing the spray but still allowing the siphon to break if there was a power outage. Took care of the noise.

 

[lmforbis]

Ok. No tube so I'll add one. There is a valve on my return. About half open

try playing with the flow rate, up and down, there may be a place where the noise is less.

 

[sberto]

Theres an old saying..."If it aint broke, dont fix it"...well that couldn't be closer to the truth today! I did have a perfectly fine 90g going....and then I saw this one being sold everything for $500...same size tank but with sump and better lights and all the extras etc. Maaaaan what a pain in the butt today has been.

So the update is....I got the sump all cleaned up. Took a bunch of sand and some rock out. Then, when I went to hook everything up again, Im not sure if I pulled on my return line or what (its a tight fit) but water was coming out from under the tank where the return line "screws" into the tank. What a mess (and a silent wife...never a good sign).

Drained the overflow, cleaned everything up, this time made sure everything was lined up properly and screwed it into place and tried again....now its running leak free (and I'm assuming leaks dont just pop up out of those lines). But Ill be honest the confidence I have in leaving it running while I go out tonight isn't there. I hope I dont come home to 30g of sump water on the floor.

I cleaned up the skimmer, plugged it in, didn't do much, Im assuming because of my low bioload (nothing) in the tank. So I unplugged it. Im wondering though how submerged are those skimmers supposed to be in the water?

I have some other equipment that came with the tank. A carbon reactor, phosphate reactor, UV sterilizer. Honestly, I dont even know what those things do. So I have left them out for now.

So my sump goes (in order), water comes in, over/under/over, refugium with sand, a few small rocks (just waiting for cheato) and a heater, skimmer, over/under/over (with a heater), return pump.

It is cloudy still, I'm wondering though without an actual filter...what will clear the water??

The tank is noisy...not sure where its coming from...but one thing at a time lol. On a side note, I'm moving in 6 months...I think I will configure the sump to go in the basement instead of directly under the tank...Im assuming a larger return pump is needed and room in the sump for power loss...that would be it though?

 

[lmforbis]

Definitely a bigger pump for the basement. I moved mine down to my basement in March. Spent $300 on a return pump to get it up to the tank. The biggest issue I find is the heat from the bigger pump. My tank, last year ran around 82 all summer. This year 85. I've come home a couple times to the controller alarming ( happens if it goes above 85). Fortunately I have my RO system supplying water for my ice maker and I just dumped a bunch of ice in to bring it down.

Most skimmers need to be around 6-7" in the water. Too deep and they don't work. I have a couple pieces of egg crate under mine to raise it.

 

[sberto]

Hm good to know about heat gain from the return pump. Our basements hear are cold usually so maybe it won't be to much of an issue. But I think that will be the best time to replumb everything.

6-7"...I'll aim for that. How will I know if it's working or not?

Also, how much flow do you have moving through your sump? It just seems to be moving really slow.

 

[lmforbis]

Mine is slow. I want to allow copapods to reproduce safely.

 

[sberto]

so I tested the water..... 0.5 for Ammonia. not good i take it?

 

[silverado61]

That could be because you stirred everything up between the move and working on the sump. It could be going through a small spike. Do a 20 to 30% water change, wait a couple of days and test again. Just a thought.

 

[sberto]

fish ok in a rubbermaid container for that long you think?

 

[silverado61]

fish ok in a rubbermaid container for that long you think?

As long as you treat it like a regular tank ( aeration, filtration, parameters ), it should be fine.

 

[lmforbis]

Agreed

 

[sberto]

Altright good to know.

This morning the tank is a little clearer. Not much. I'll do a water change and check parameters.

 

[silverado61]

Change the water at the sump, not the tank. It'll just stir things up again. What steps do you use to make saltwater?

 

[sberto]

Good idea for the sump. I haven't done my water change yet ( starting now). Ammonia is down to about .25ppm this morning. No nitrite. About 20 nitrate.

But I mix up in a 5g bucked...take some water out, put some water in. That's about it. Do you think running carbon will help?

 

[silverado61]

How long do you let the water mix?