RSR 300XL sump issue

[dnledman]

Hi Everyone, currently have my RSR 300XL set up with a refugium and protein skimmer. Everything is generally going well however one crucial issue that is starting to annoy me and I’d love some input from you all for budget conscious options.

I have to clean the black filter foam between the skimmer and pump chamber about every two weeks. If I fail to clean this it can get so clogged the water backs up into the skimmer chamber and leads to more RO hitting the tank than I would like. Typically this only leads to a .01 drop in salinity so not the end of the word but if I don’t catch it, it could definitely be worse.

anyone have any experience with this and if so, what did you do to address it?

 

[blaxsun]

I haven't changed mine in over 2 months.How much algae and gunk is yours covered in every 2 weeks?

 

[mermaid_life]

Hi Everyone, currently have my RSR 300XL set up with a refugium and protein skimmer. Everything is generally going well however one crucial issue that is starting to annoy me and I’d love some input from you all for budget conscious options.

I have to clean the black filter foam between the skimmer and pump chamber about every two weeks. If I fail to clean this it can get so clogged the water backs up into the skimmer chamber and leads to more RO hitting the tank than I would like. Typically this only leads to a .01 drop in salinity so not the end of the word but if I don’t catch it, it could definitely be worse.

anyone have any experience with this and if so, what did you do to address it?

Yes, I had this issue. I would put a strip of filter floss pad across the top and just change that out since the sponge isn't the easiest to rinse. Eventually, I took out the sponge completely. Only use filter floss cups and skimmer now.

 

[dnledman]

Yes, I had this issue. I would put a strip of filter floss pad across the top and just change that out since the sponge isn't the easiest to rinse. Eventually, I took out the sponge completely. Only use filter floss cups and skimmer now.

So that is my thought, do I just stuff some filter floss in there as a hackey way to prevent this or just throw it out

 

[mermaid_life]

So that is my thought, do I just stuff some filter floss in there as a hackey way to prevent this or just throw it out

I think it depends on what the rest of your setup looks like. It just wasn't worth it to me to have that extra sponge there. I have plenty of media in the sump. My filter floss cups do a great job filtering out the larger particulates. My skimmer gets the rest.

 

[Craig77]

I don't have a perfect solution and generally experience something similar to you. I was running a single filter sock (with the hard plastic media cup in the other on my XL300). I changed this to 2 parallel filter socks to catch more debris coming down from the tank. I also raised up my skimmer about an inch in my case using some egg crate and just accepted that the water height in the skimmer chamber would be a bit higher. Now the water from my skimmer chamber generally flows through the black sponge bubble guard, but if that gets blocked up with debris the water overflows. Either way that skimmer chamber water level doesn't change too much which prevents excessive foaming and keeps the levels more stable regardless of whether that black sponge gets stopped up.