I just cant keep my rocks clean for the life of me

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MohrReefs

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How thick is the rim? If you can fit a HOB overflow box on the side of the bookshelf where u currently has the heater, then you can run that down to under the tank where it look like you should have room for a 5 to 10G tank to DIY a sump/fuge.

If you can't figure out a way to run a hob overflow box. Then wat you can do is, keep your canister, remove the mechanical filtration (or keep it, doesn't matter at this point since algae reactor will control no3 absorption) , plumb an algae reactor next to it, connect the canister out to the reactor in, and connect reactor out to the tank return line.
Its about an inch thick with a small drop down to catch the lid that came with it. Wife was surprisingly okay with the bookcase hob side idea. Ill have to find something.
 

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I would up nitrate, and dose a variety of microbial blends. Eco balance, pns probio, reef enhance, maybe some waste away.

I would also test the lfs water for phosphate too. If that is 0, your issue clearly isn't because the tank is too dirty.
 
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I would up nitrate, and dose a variety of microbial blends. Eco balance, pns probio, reef enhance, maybe some waste away.

I would also test the lfs water for phosphate too. If that is 0, your issue clearly isn't because the tank is too dirty.
I dose bacter 7 daily. Phos was .08 in the tank.
 
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I've had my eye on this one for about a year, doesnt say if it will work for rimmed tanks though.

 

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Its about an inch thick with a small drop down to catch the lid that came with it. Wife was surprisingly okay with the bookcase hob side idea. Ill have to find something.
I have this for my 29G


Diff size for different flow rate. But that bend is about 1 inch so could work.

If you've never done a DYI sump then there are a lot of guides/videos including this forum that can help

Basically will need a tank, a few class or acrylic sheets, reef safe silicone, pvc pipes and joints. Pvc cement/primer, and a return pump. Might sound intimidating at first but it really is not hard. Just read up on them first. I did mine with about 1 week prep to make sure I got everything and designed it, then 1 weekend to actually put everything together.
 
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I have this for my 29G


Diff size for different flow rate. But that bend is about 1 inch so could work.

If you've never done a DYI sump then there are a lot of guides/videos including this forum that can help

Basically will need a tank, a few class or acrylic sheets, reef safe silicone, pvc pipes and joints. Pvc cement/primer, and a return pump. Might sound intimidating at first but it really is not hard. Just read up on them first. I did mine with about 1 week prep to make sure I got everything and designed it, then 1 weekend to actually put everything together.
Just so I'm understanding you. I need the sump under my tank. The overflow then pulls water from my tank down into my sump and then I would need a return pump from the sump back to the tank I take it? And in the sump I can run an algae refugium and skimmer etc?

Are they on the reef discussion page?
 

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Here are some ideas that I’ve been playing with:

Hob skimmer (just got a Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 today. Let me know if you have any questions about it)
277E35F4-7CDB-4893-AF7C-A352AC959813.jpeg
E2984BE7-E7D7-489C-8A48-18DC971C739E.jpeg


Add a filter sock...somehow. Then monitor parameters and modify change out schedule to match. I was up to every 12 hours when things were bad.
7C1AFC91-0FA1-4E75-9D9C-0FBBD9131B43.jpeg

C20C6D35-13AB-4B6F-AE61-08664B8B3EA2.jpeg

That is a pump in a glass container to keep the sand out.

Grow the algae out of the way. Throw some grow lights on a spot where you want algae to grow.
57D26C39-D3DC-4E85-9731-B3CEC0A1B774.jpeg


Just some food for thought. I recently ended up with some sun coral that was basically starved. I am currently feeding way to much while trying keep parameters in check.
You may be more interested in growing algae in a separate container. I am using my little container to contain food. Basically feed like crazy in there and catch it all in the filter sock.
 

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I've had my eye on this one for about a year, doesnt say if it will work for rimmed tanks though.

Can you take a pic of the actual rim? Not sure what the concern is. If its just standard rims like mine (see pic) then there is no reason it shouldn't fit. I just measured my rim is 3/4 inches thick and the U bend has room for 1 1/4 inches


16140473373567778262697704538603.jpg



Here is my full set up. Water goes down the overflow, pvc pipes them to first chamber where i got the skimmer, second chamber got the fuge and heater, baffles between second and third chamber has carbon, third chamber return.

20210222_213454.jpg
20210222_213509.jpg
20210222_213514.jpg
20210222_213519.jpg


A few important concepts to consider is head pressure and syphon break, but I'm sure if you are serious looking into this you will find these easily mentioned in any sump build thread.
 
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MohrReefs

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Can you take a pic of the actual rim? Not sure what the concern is. If its just standard rims like mine (see pic) then there is no reason it shouldn't fit. I just measured my rim is 3/4 inches thick and the U bend has room for 1 1/4 inches


16140473373567778262697704538603.jpg



Here is my full set up. Water goes down the overflow, pvc pipes them to first chamber where i got the skimmer, second chamber got the fuge and heater, baffles between second and third chamber has carbon, third chamber return.

20210222_213454.jpg
20210222_213509.jpg
20210222_213514.jpg
20210222_213519.jpg


A few important concepts to consider is head pressure and syphon break, but I'm sure if you are serious looking into this you will find these easily mentioned in any sump build thread.
20210222_211641.jpg


Rim photo. Okay so after some research, and measuring, I can only fit a 10 gallon tank under my current tank. Because its small I was reading on reef2reef that a small skimmer may not even do anything and one person recommended turning the majority of the space into a chaeto refugium. Think that would be an acceptable nutrient export paired with filter socks? BRS had a good video on it and it would give me a place for my pods to grow safely before my fish get them.
 

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i have 10G on my 29G and it was "too good" for me - as you can see i have a reef octopus BH50 (rated up to 50G) skimmer + about 5G volume for my refugium. it looks empty now b/c it was doing too well and i had to pull out most of the macro - i struggle to get my No3 above 2 and Po4 above 0.01 and i feed a LOT (feed fish daily, dose amino daily, and target feed coral every other day with roids/cyclopeeze/hikari coral food).

I'd think 10G is sufficient for your 44G, regardless if you plan to use it all as fuge vs do a half fuge half skimmer combo like me. They serve different purposes but fuge is the only "end product waste" control b/c it absorbs no3/po4 whereas skimmer takes out the waste products before they break down to no3/po4.

you mentioned sock - that's fine too as long as you switch them out every 3 days. I had them for a while too and it did get the job done but eventually i just got lazy with the cleaning.

the way it generally works is - socks filters out large waste/uneaten food, whatever socks miss gets broken down to smaller pieces that skimmer picks up, whatever skimmer misses gets broken down to no3/po4 that macro algea in the fuge pick up. b/c of this cascading effect, if any of the upper level controls becomes too good, it will impact the effectiveness of the lower level controls. Whats right for your system depends on your nutrient/waste profile so will take some tweaking to get right. if nothing else, keep the fuge b/c it will eventually pick up all waste once they break down to no3/po4.
 
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i have 10G on my 29G and it was "too good" for me - as you can see i have a reef octopus BH50 (rated up to 50G) skimmer + about 5G volume for my refugium. it looks empty now b/c it was doing too well and i had to pull out most of the macro - i struggle to get my No3 above 2 and Po4 above 0.01 and i feed a LOT (feed fish daily, dose amino daily, and target feed coral every other day with roids/cyclopeeze/hikari coral food).

I'd think 10G is sufficient for your 44G, regardless if you plan to use it all as fuge vs do a half fuge half skimmer combo like me. They serve different purposes but fuge is the only "end product waste" control b/c it absorbs no3/po4 whereas skimmer takes out the waste products before they break down to no3/po4.

you mentioned sock - that's fine too as long as you switch them out every 3 days. I had them for a while too and it did get the job done but eventually i just got lazy with the cleaning.

the way it generally works is - socks filters out large waste/uneaten food, whatever socks miss gets broken down to smaller pieces that skimmer picks up, whatever skimmer misses gets broken down to no3/po4 that macro algea in the fuge pick up. b/c of this cascading effect, if any of the upper level controls becomes too good, it will impact the effectiveness of the lower level controls. Whats right for your system depends on your nutrient/waste profile so will take some tweaking to get right. if nothing else, keep the fuge b/c it will eventually pick up all waste once they break down to no3/po4.
Okay, Im going to do a HOB overflow, down to a 10 gallon sump refugium with chaeto, and a return pump back to the tank. Because I feed a lot less than you lol. I do a half a cube and AB+ every other day. But first, rock scrubbing.

Thank you!
 

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one limitation of fuge that you should keep in mind - it needs to outcompete the algae/coral in your DT, thats where the cheato ball needs to reach certain critical mass to be effective and having a good light since chances are your DT has the super strong par fancy lights. a 10G should be fine once the chaeto grows to about a basket ball size, but you can help leveling the competition playing field by giving it a strong chaeto light and actively remove any trace of GHA you see in the DT. Once your chaeto ball gets big enough and you keep the GHA in your tank small enough, the nature competition will keep the gha population down, and thats where the CUC comes to take it across the finish line.

skimmer does not suffer this limitation.
 
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one limitation of fuge that you should keep in mind - it needs to outcompete the algae/coral in your DT, thats where the cheato ball needs to reach certain critical mass to be effective and having a good light since chances are your DT has the super strong par fancy lights. a 10G should be fine once the chaeto grows to about a basket ball size, but you can help leveling the competition playing field by giving it a strong chaeto light and actively remove any trace of GHA you see in the DT. Once your chaeto ball gets big enough and you keep the GHA in your tank small enough, the nature competition will keep the gha population down, and thats where the CUC comes to take it across the finish line.

skimmer does not suffer this limitation.
Can the skimmer be in the same section as the Chaeto or do I need the baffle separation?
 

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diff section - ideally skimmer first.

chaeto will clog the skimmer intake

should have baffle air traps + a filter sponge to prevent too much chaeto/detritus from getting into your return pump chamber and clog the return pump.
 

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You can do one set of baffles. At the end to seperate your return from the main chamber. Add a hang on back skimmer to your 10g custom sump. Done. Hths
D
 

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