Help!! I’m getting so frustrated

[Hilltopreef90]

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but when I went to do a water change earlier I’d put the pump on feed mode and maybe that was the mistake, anyway some how the sump was filling almost to over flowing so I shut everything down and pumped the water from the sump back to the display in the process I noticed later that small strands of chaeto are now in my display tank. I skimmed out most of what I could see but know I didn’t get it all.
First off what am I doing wrong when I’m doing my water change ? Should the pump in the sump be on or off ?
secondly how big an issue might I have with tiny strands of chaeto in my display tank?
I did a 20% water change twice last week I paced chempure elite in the sump and my nitrates are still high 28.4 last week they were 32.7 phosphates are down to 0.12
I have ten fish some peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, tuxedo urchin and a large variety of snail and a few emerald crabs. I feed one cube of mysis shrimp a day, am I feeding too much? I’m on top of water changes and keeping my filter socks changed I use a protein skimmer and I’m trying to grow chaeto in my refugium, I don’t get why my nitrates are so high

 

[jgirardnrg]

Pumps should be off for a water change. Your sump should be able to hold all the water that comes down from the display when you turn the pumps off. If not, you have too much water and need to lower your sump level until it can hold what comes back. Otherwise, when the power goes out, you're going to flood your floor.

How's the skimmate from the skimmer?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Either leave pump running or adjust flow from tank.
You may not have what is known as a siphon break and the water will continue to flow until it reached below the intake. Its good this happened now rather than during a power outage. You can place an elbow on the return pipe on top and when water drops below elbow , it will stop flowing

 

[WVNed]

Turn the skimmer off, Turn the return pump off.
Take the water out of the DT
Turn the return pump back on
Add the water to the sump until it comes back to your set normal level you use to decide how much make up water to add.
Turn sKimmer back on.

You may have to turn other things off depending on how your system is built like heaters or wave makes.
You never want a heater in the air while it is plugged in. It can explode when the water touches it again

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Pumps should be off for a water change. Your sump should be able to hold all the water that comes down from the display when you turn the pumps off. If not, you have too much water and need to lower your sump level until it can hold what comes back. Otherwise, when the power goes out, you're going to flood your floor.

How's the skimmate from the skimmer?

I’m getting a good amount and cleaning it about every 3 days.
I took photos of my tank level and assume it’s where it should be
I’m pretty sure I’ve got too much water in my sump, when I drain some out should I turn the pump off ?
Is the chaeto strands that are in the display going to be a problem?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Do you have chaeto in the return pump section, or did it overflow the baffles and go into the return section? I'm trying to find out how it could possibly end up in the display. I'm also not sure who the sump would overflow if the return pump was running. Something strange there...

But yes, as others have said, turn your return pump off before water changes. If you don't, the return pump will generally run dry.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

What's in your return section? Is that gravel or chemipure in bags? I'd recommend not putting anything in the return section that could get sucked up in the return pump.

 

[pochaxoo]

A couple of strands of chaeto will be easy to catch and remove later, it isn't like sea lettuce where you can never get rid of it. Often times the water level in the sump is only 8" or so because that is the optimal height for some skimmers. I am not sure where yours operates but the other way to reduce what backflows into the sump from your return lines is to raise the output of the return in the aquarium. If you are using lockline have it closer to the surface rather than pointing down deep.

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Do you have chaeto in the return pump section, or did it overflow the baffles and go into the return section? I'm trying to find out how it could possibly end up in the display. I'm also not sure who the sump would overflow if the return pump was running. Something strange there...

But yes, as others have said, turn your return pump off before water changes. If you don't, the return pump will generally run dry.

I did a very dumb thing and pumped the water from the sump into the display tank when it was close to over flowing the chaeto was in a basket and I didn’t realize strands were still able to get pumped into the display tank.
I’m still needing to know what harm the chaeto that did get into the display and I wasn’t able to skim out can cause ?

 

[Hilltopreef90]

What's in your return section? Is that gravel or chemipure in bags? I'd recommend not putting anything in the return section that could get sucked up in the return pump.

The only thing I’m with the return pump is a couple pieces of rock, there is chempure in the sump but it’s in a different chamber and no way possible to get sucked into the return pump