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Upgrading skimmer, sump, biopellets (1 Viewer)

bkoppes

bkoppes

75g starting 3/2008
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Feb 16, 2008
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Twin Cities
My tank is 75g and sump is 29g.

I am in the market for a new skimmer. When I started in the hobby I was told to by an AquaC Urchin(in sump). Really not to happy with it now. Am I wrong thinking this? It has never been cleaned and impossible to get out of my sump without totally removing the sump.

Here is my problem. I am going to need to get my sump out of my stand, I will have to take the front brace off to get my 29g sump out. I will be supporting the front sides by the doors when I do this. I will be replacing my sump with a 20L I think??

So I am thinking about starting with a new sump and am thinking about getting rid of the refugium portion of the sump and adding biopellets. Bad decision?

I have a standard aga stand so I only have 24" of height to work with. So for the skimmer, I am looking at the Super Reef Octopus XP1000 Space Saver. Is there a better option?

In my refugium section of my sump I have about 2 inches of sand and a little cheato that seems to never grow, cyno takes over.

Do I still keep a refugium in my new sump or do without it and try out Biopellets?

Am I crazy to be trying to change things on an almost 3 year old setup? I lost a few corals lately and can't figure out what is wrong. I am blaming my sump/skimmer. On a side note I did a 20-25 gallon water change last night and will be doing the same tomorrow and saturday.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
 
Can you gut your 29 without taking out the sump? Removing braces sounds like a bad idea. No fuge sounds fine to me- our current 75 doesn't have one and neither did our last tank.
 
Dragon Eye said:
Can you gut your 29 without taking out the sump? Removing braces sounds like a bad idea. No fuge sounds fine to me- our current 75 doesn't have one and neither did our last tank.
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I probably could remove the baffles and use a wet vac to get the water out but the problem is the 29 is too tall for me to work in the sump. I will be removing the vertical brace that the doors shut on and supporting that part of the tank with 2x4s when I pull it out. Then I will replace it. Li told me it would be ok, so if he is wrong we can blame a disaster on him. :)
 
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ive had the reef octos since i came back, while i briefly considered one big one they have for my new build i wont run another on my sytems... i had to dial it in every day... just got to be rediculious...

when i was looking at skimmers for the cube i had gotten from fritz and i was talking about skimmers ray pmd me about 20 times... bm bm bm bm.. in hindsight i really wish i would have gotten one... i may play with one on a tinker tank here in the next few months....
 
bubble king, bubble king, bubble king;)
 
Magnus for budget, king for quality. Check with me on either, I can order them. I've been using magnus for all my maintenance accounts that needed skimmers.

Removing the center board sounds scary. But guess what, it's not really holding anything up. First few times I did it I got all worried. Now.. look out, I just knock them out. Glass tanks put all their weight on the ends/corners.

If your worried and can drain the tank down a bit, it does take some of the weight off the stand. But once you have the board out and look at it, you'll realize it's not capable of supporting much weight.

20L is the same foot print as a 29G.. can you get a 36" tank in there for a sump? gives you more room for equipment and other goodies.


Unless the fuge is large (like a 20/29G on its own) it does not do much. Pellets may, or may not work. They are new, and not completely tested over long term.
 
I really like my SRO XP cone skimmer and the BB pump. But everyone has a opinion and preference of what they want. I think you would be happy with any of them. Although not sure on warranties but Octopus has a awesome pump 3 yrs..
 
gooyferret said:
I really like my SRO XP cone skimmer and the BB pump. But everyone has a opinion and preference of what they want. I think you would be happy with any of them. Although not sure on warranties but Octopus has a awesome pump 3 yrs..
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What model number is your skimmer and how big is your display and sump? How long have you had it and what did you have before?
 
bkoppes said:
Do I still keep a refugium in my new sump or do without it and try out Biopellets?
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Any refuge you can fit into a 20L is not going to be a huge benefit to filtration. The Biopellets alone will far surpass and may eventually outcompete the refugium anyways. Not having to light a refugim will help ( even if only slightly every little thing helps ) offset the cost of running the additional pump for the biopellets media reactor.

I'd skip it especially if it make the difference between fitting a larger skimmer opposed to a smaller skimmer.

It takes about 5weeks for the bio pellets to really start doing it's thing so for sure plan on much larger water changes than your custom to during that timeframe to keep algae issues from creeping in.
 
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bkoppes said:
What model number is your skimmer and how big is your display and sump? How long have you had it and what did you have before?
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I have the XP3000 internal. Its on my 180gal tank, and have been running it for about a year now. I had an Xtreme 200 before the cone and I really liked that skimmer also. A Xtreme 200 would be a really good choice for your tank also. You could do the 160 or 200.
 
David Grigor said:
Any refuge you can fit into a 20L is not going to be a huge benefit to filtration. The Biopellets alone will far surpass and may eventually outcompete the refugium anyways. Not having to light a refugim will help ( even if only slightly every little thing helps ) offset the cost of running the additional pump for the biopellets media reactor.

I'd skip it especially if it make the difference between fitting a larger skimmer opposed to a smaller skimmer.

It takes about 5weeks for the bio pellets to really start doing it's thing so for sure plan on much larger water changes than your custom to during that timeframe to keep algae issues from creeping in.
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This is the plan I am leaning towards. Since I will be removing my fuge I will be doing more frequent water changes, not every 2 months like I have been doing :)

The size of the skimmer is mostly limited by height because of my stand and the ideal operating water level for the skimmer. I am leaning toward the SWC 160 Cone.
 
I dont think you would even need the cone. You could just use the Xtreme 160 or 200. The one I used worked awesome, and it was on a 125gal tank.
 
bkoppes said:
This is the plan I am leaning towards. Since I will be removing my fuge I will be doing more frequent water changes, not every 2 months like I have been doing :)

The size of the skimmer is mostly limited by height because of my stand and the ideal operating water level for the skimmer. I am leaning toward the SWC 160 Cone.
Click to expand...

The BM-NAC7 is a hair shorter (.4 of an inch) and it's water level is 9.5 to 12"
 
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