Nano Tank | Sump upgrade | Skimmer or refugium?

[Apayson]

Hi Y'all
I'd appreciate your advice on the next steps I'm about to take on my 13.5 gallon tank.
My sump has inadequate filtration & I'm wondering if I should upgrade my sump chambers to have 2 media baskets...or go with a skimmer or refugium in one of the chambers.

Images are attached below of the design flaws, current set up & potential solutions.

I have a mixed reef tank that is now 7 months old.
Inhabitants:
1 clown
5 nessarius snails
1 turbo snail
1 blue hermit crab

corals:
1 torch
1 favia
1 hydnophora
2 acros (added after I saw growth of the monti)
1 monitora digita

Rock:
Mix of dry rock + Live rock that was added months ago

I'm dissatisfied with the biological filtration in the tank, as my ammonia levels are consistently elevated.
I understand that a refugium won't solve that, but I believe the upgraded media basket will help.

I'm tempted to ditch the skimmer because I've decided to no longer use NOPOX. My corals don't like it & I'm having some cyano appear.

Potential causes of ammonia:

• lack of good filtration in my sump
• overfeeding brine shrimp over a long period of time
• potential copepod & amphipod population & starvation? this arrived on my store bought live rock
• Mix of dry rock & little live rock
• Lack of beneficial bacteria? I recently added xport balls seeded with Microbacter Start to help with that

here are my readings the last 2 weeks
Sunday: I added seeded xport balls with Microbacter Start

This Wednesday's readings:
Alkalinity: 9.8 dkh
Salinity: 35
Ammonia: .4
Nitrite: .1
Nitrate: 5
Mg: 1380
Ca: 450


Last Wednesday's readings:
Alkalinity: 9
Salinity: 35
Ammonia: .6
Nitrite: .1
Nitrate: 4

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Sump is extremely small on the Evo 13.5 , the more you add stuff the more you will restrict the flow causing detritus buildup. You can add them and it will work great.....you just have to keep up with maintenance or it will clog.

 

[Apayson]

Sump is extremely small on the Evo 13.5 , the more you add stuff the more you will restrict the flow causing detritus buildup. You can add them and it will work great.....you just have to keep up with maintenance or it will clog.

Thanks!

If you were suddenly stuck with this tank, what would you add/remove from this sump?

...Weekly maintenance & water changes is something that I never skip btw

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I just watched this on YouTube... might be worthy . A manual filter roller for an Evo .

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Clean your return pump a lot. the more you clean all these parts on small tanks like this the more it will help you in the long run. @Apayson I clean my skimmer once a week and when I do that pump is rippppin.