Gumbies R Us
Another Fish in the Sea
Glad to see the tank is still going strong!2yr update!Sorry it took so long. Tank has been through some highs and lows, naturally. Was really battling with figuring out how to keep the husbandry consistent since my work takes me out of town all the time. Filter socks were not being changed in a timely manner, protein skimmer wasn't getting the TLC it needed. Long story short I was struggling with nutrient export big time and had a huge GHA outbreak, everything looked awful. Huge eyesore. No one was happy. Wife, corals, and fish were not impressed
I needed to come up with a solution that allowed me to keep the tank while still traveling a lot for work. Housed all my livestock in a temporary setup. Got new rock and sand. Cycled. Ditched the filter socks and protein skimmer. Put a refugium where the protein skimmer was. Made the switch to a fleece roller mat which turned out to be a life saver, but since it was an after thought it didn't fit very well with the sump dimensions. Made it difficult to get in there and get a tight seal at the fleece roller inlet which is crucial. It still worked just not 100% efficiency. I wasn't getting that crystal clear water and there was always a little film on the surface. Ran with this setup pretty smoothly for over a year, but still wasn't happy with the water getting passed the fleece roller mat and its effect on water quality.
This past weekend I ditched the synergy sump, used a Fiji Cube DIY baffle kit on a 40gal breeder and built the sump to the exact specifications I needed. Now I have plenty of room to run the plumbing the way I wanted to the fleece roller mat, running a Tunze algae reactor outside the sump so I got my skimmer section back! Took down the top shelf in the stand and got a controller cabinet. Much more room to work around the sump now and do maintenance, and much easier access to all my electronics in the cabinet or mounted on the cabinet face.
It was a huge pain to change the sump and a little plumbing, but I'm very happy with the decision. Water has never looked better. Nothing is getting passed the fleece roller mat now. Everything is much more accessible and so much nicer to work under the tank. Still tweaking stuff since it hasn't been running this way very long but I'm super excited with what the future holds!
