Need advice on sump design

[JAWSIII]

Hi all. Need some direction from some seasoned hobbyist.

I have a 65 gallon tank with stand and canopy that I have been running with a hob reef octo 90, aqua clear 110 hob and a fluval 407 canister. It had been good except slightly higher NO3 than I would like but also I am tired of looking at the hardware from HOB filters and the heater. So because of space in the cabinet and budget my sump options are limited to using a 20 high tank.

I purchased a slightly custom 20 high kit , the custom part was getting the water leave to be able keep the water high enough to allow the reed octo to work in the sump. The kit is nice but because of the room needed for the return pump and me using the reef octo it makes it very tight to put a foam block between the water leave and last baffle So I’m choosing to not use the last foam block and just put a prefilter on the pump.

anyway to the question. With main (middle part of the sump) I was considering using the acrylic sheet that would have been the foam block holder as a sort of chamber divider to separate my main matrix media and have a “chamber for cheato or maybe carbon etc..”. I hope the photos attached so what I mean. The red circled area is what I am trying to see Is it worth it to separate 2 different areas for nitrate media and cheato or other.

please help

 

[sunken3]

i personally would skip the fuge/chaeto with a protein skimmer there. it'll be super crowded and not give you much benefit, plus the lighting for your fuge will make the rest of your sump be algae prone including the skimmer. but just a thought.

 

[JAWSIII]

The skimmer is HOB so most of it hangs outside. However I am tending to agree that I should just load the middle with matrix or marinepure and skip the light.

 

[sunken3]

oh i missed that it was hob still.. i use the brightwell bricks (less aluminum issues)

 

[Devaji]

ah I see disregard my comment on the other post about glass.

you do have options not a ton of space but some to work with.
this is what I would do.

get the BRS mini reactor for carbon and GFO have a small pump in there and mount it to the stand.

depending on how much space you have above the sump do a DIY algae turf scrubber or in sump upflow scrubber ATS are supper efficient and dont take up a ton of space. (expecally the upflow types ) that will give you plenty of room in there form bio-media aswel.

hard to say tho with out seeing how much space you have in the stand.

I have a reef octo HOB skimmer that I ran on a 40br temp tank for 1.5 years nice little skimmer but do keep an eye for leaks. after about a year restarting the pump was a real PITA just make sure you can get to the bottom of the skimmer and able to take the whole think out for cleaning. if you cant please doont go the HOB skimmer you will hate it when its time to replace or clean or it starts to leak...just saying

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

Hi all. Need some direction from some seasoned hobbyist.

I have a 65 gallon tank with stand and canopy that I have been running with a hob reef octo 90, aqua clear 110 hob and a fluval 407 canister. It had been good except slightly higher NO3 than I would like but also I am tired of looking at the hardware from HOB filters and the heater. So because of space in the cabinet and budget my sump options are limited to using a 20 high tank.

I purchased a slightly custom 20 high kit , the custom part was getting the water leave to be able keep the water high enough to allow the reed octo to work in the sump. The kit is nice but because of the room needed for the return pump and me using the reef octo it makes it very tight to put a foam block between the water leave and last baffle So I’m choosing to not use the last foam block and just put a prefilter on the pump.

anyway to the question. With main (middle part of the sump) I was considering using the acrylic sheet that would have been the foam block holder as a sort of chamber divider to separate my main matrix media and have a “chamber for cheato or maybe carbon etc..”. I hope the photos attached so what I mean. The red circled area is what I am trying to see Is it worth it to separate 2 different areas for nitrate media and cheato or other.

please help

I highly recommend a fuge! It’s a natural and efficient way to clean ur water, 100% refugium all the way. I purchased my sump to have the largest fuge space as possible and I fit chaeto, mangroves, black longspine urchin, mushroom rock, tuxedo urchins, shrimp all in there to help clean the water. I personally think it adds a lot of flavor to the sump and makes things seem less artificial and adds some extra context to those reef talks.

Chaeto. This is the way. helps with algae and biodiversity. Aka more stability ;Cyclops;Droid;Drowning just my 2¢

 

[sunken3]

I highly recommend a fuge! It’s a natural and efficient way to clean ur water, 100% refugium all the way. I purchased my sump to have the largest fuge space as possible and I fit chaeto, mangroves, black longspine urchin, mushroom rock, tuxedo urchins, shrimp all in there to help clean the water. I personally think it adds a lot of flavor to the sump and makes things seem less artificial and adds some extra context to those reef talks.

Chaeto. This is the way. helps with algae and biodiversity. Aka more stability ;Cyclops;Droid;Drowning just my 2¢

i dont disagree with a fuge, i just dont think there is very much space here for an effective one.

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

i dont disagree with a fuge, i just dont think there is very much space here for an effective one.

Trying so hard to convince you lol!! I think you can, my friend he has a HOB refugium LOL and it’s a tiny box and the chaeto just grows into a cube lol, I think it could work but more of a preference thing yk

 

[Devaji]

Trying so hard to convince you lol!! I think you can, my friend he has a HOB refugium LOL and it’s a tiny box and the chaeto just grows into a cube lol, I think it could work but more of a preference thing yk

and that is where ATS come in more filtering power in less space IMHO

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

and that is where ATS come in more filtering power in less space IMHO

Hahaha honestly ATS would work also, idk about copepods in one though

 

[JAWSIII]

Thanks for the input. I decided to keep the fuge area as large as possible. After all the sections were placed the area footprint will be 12wx10l in the fuge area. I am gonna run the reef octo and I do have plenty access to the skimmer if needed. I am also gonna put a rack “think frag rack” in the fuge area that will be 11wx9l x 4 high. On the rack I am gonna rest an xport plate from brightwell and I’ll put the heater under the rack. And the area above the plate and the water surface I’ll let the cheato do it’s thing.

I’ll send a few pics once built.