just sharing a new sump build, adding into an existing 600 gal system (400 plumbed into a 200). made this sump in accordance with steve tyree's CMAT 1 & 2 ebooks.
because we currently only have about 200 lbs of live rock, and an undersized sump with only brightwell and marine pure plus skimmer - basically a sparse 'modern' tank. i thought this would be a good project to try.
we do have an existing cheato/culurpa section in the 200 gal portion of our display (with only a tiny bit of each), which i am thinking of removing at some point. our lower flow/lower light 200 gal had tons of feather dusters, which got nuked within days of my sis adding a copperband lol.
we run bare-bottom, and i've noticed when i clean out the detrius, our nitrate and phosphate levels immediately take a dive, from 2 or 3 ppm no3 - to 1 to zero, and .04 or .06 - to zero, respectively. so i'm thinking steve tyree's zonal sump system is perfect to add, both in terms of bio-diversity and a nutrient sink (since i'm planning on never touching it). regarding the sudden buffet disappearance of feather dusters, 5 of our 20+ lyetails came down with 'the flu' and passed away. i'm thinking it had something to do with a baterial increase, given this immediately followed the nuking of 100's of feather dusters.
current total water movement in our mixed 400 gal ranges from 40 to 80x, and about 30x in our 200.
i'll upload a video describing the sump shortly.
