How and When to Move from HOB to Sump?

[FenrirAysen]

At the moment i'm using a Tidal 75 HOB Filtration System on my 40G tank. Very young tank, only about a month old. However, if I were interested in upgrading to a sump system to go under the cabinet, should I do specific things on a specific schedule so as not to disrupt the bacteria and natural environment? Should I just not bother switching to a sump? Is there a thread I can read about the process? If I should do it, anyone have some pointers? Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally, I think that if you want a sump, then drain the tank and start all over with drilling and plumbing the tank. Your only one month in, so nothing much to lose at this point. Unless of course you wanted a hob overflow, but I have no experience with that.

With that said, nothing wrong with going with a hob filter, if you want more filtration, its always very easy to add a hob skimmer, hob, refugium, hob reactors, etc....

The sump is just a place to hide the equipment, if you don't mind looking at hob equipment, then it doesn't matter

 

[PharmrJohn]

Personally, I think that if you want a sump, then drain the tank and start all over with drilling and plumbing the tank. Your only one month in, so nothing much to lose at this point. Unless of course you wanted a hob overflow, but I have no experience with that.

With that said, nothing wrong with going with a hob filter, if you want more filtration, its always very easy to add a hob skimmer, hob, refugium, hob reactors, etc....

The sump is just a place to hide the equipment, if you don't mind looking at hob equipment, then it doesn't matter

This didn't even occur to me! And it makes a lot of sense. You can keep the Live Rock live in a container with a heater, a powerhead and ammonia dosing to feed the little buggers. Same with the sand. Only a month in, you don't need to wash it. Drilling will be a significant improvement to the system. And you've not lost, really, any time.