Would You Recomend A Sump?

[montanareefer]

I have a 60 Gal reef tank that is about four months old. I have 120lbs of rock and a deep sand bed. I only have a yellow tang and a picaso clown at the moment and various corals and invertabre.
I have a rapids pro all in one filter that i think is a piece of junk. but i cant really tell since ive never had a sump before. has anyone had good luck with these rapid pros or should i switch to a big fancy sump.
I have a 750 and 1400 gph powereheads.

 

[beaslbob]

sump or no sump I do recommend a refugium full of macro algaes.
One way to do that is just partition the tank with egg crate into a small macro area and the rest being the display area. And to add lights for the macros.
If you do a sump please be sure to adjust and test:
1) power out--no floods
2) power return-- returns to normal operation
3) drain/overflow failure (breaking syphon/blackage)---no floods.
my .02

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MontanaReefer http:///t/393254/would-you-recomend-a-sump#post_3497069
I have a 60 Gal reef tank that is about four months old. I have 120lbs of rock and a deep sand bed. I only have a yellow tang and a picaso clown at the moment and various corals and invertabre.
I have a rapids pro all in one filter that i think is a piece of junk. but i cant really tell since ive never had a sump before. has anyone had good luck with these rapid pros or should i switch to a big fancy sump.
I have a 750 and 1400 gph powereheads.
Yeah, you wasted your money. sorry.
Your sump doesn't have to be big and fancy. You can build it out of a small aquarium that will fit under your tank, such as a 20g long. Put a couple of glass baffles in it and your good to go! I would highly recommend looking into upgrading the protein skimmer. Reef Octopus brand skimmers are actually pretty good skimmers for the price. I have one on my 75g and I don't think I'll go back to a different skimmer anytime soon.
A simple mechanical filtration system can be set up in a 20g long sump with some egg crate, PVC and a glass baffle siliconed into place. Depending on the size of your skimmer, you can also add a refugium in the same sump.
Let us know what you are thinking about doing!

 

[saxman]

Agreed...sumps are the way, the truth, and the light, and IMHO, once you run a sump, you'll always want one.
I use filter socks for mechanical filtration. I have several, and simply toss them into the washing machine (no detergent) once I grab the last one.

 

[smallreef]

SUMP! I got a cheap (VERY CHEAP) old wet dry that I took all of the bio balls out of and the trays and voila! a new 20g sump... put a skimmer in that bad boy and a really good return pump and you should have awesome flow and great mechanical and the ability to add chemical filtration ( I usually do media bags of things such as carbon and chemi-pure elite when needed)also, I just added a ATO and reservoir tank... don't know how for so many years I went without one...

I know it looks like a crazy mess but I have to say its worth its weight in gold to me to be able to have the ability in a moments notice that I need to drop in a bag of carbon or ramp up the skimmer more ( when my husband feeds the fish)