Sump and flow critique

[shollis2814]

OK, I have a 36 gallon bowfront that's 2 years old. The sump is a modified trickle filter. I traded a magnum 350 for it on a CL find. I took out the bioballs, put a sock on the overflow next to the skimmer. The venturi works well (I've got my water levels down after two years of tweaking).

As you can see I have a sponge in the tray to help catch what gets through the sock. In the middle section there is some liverock rubble (with a TON of vermetids) and my heater. On the left is a return pump. The blue plastic tray serves as a noise baffle as well as it keeps the water from just flowing over the right hand wall.

Now, for the middle section I have a couple of options. I have an LED light and I could put some chaeto in there for a mini-fuge. I could make an algae scrubber using the same light, or I have some old coral I could use for some extra LR. It's a blue coral and fan coral skelly. Could that be used for LR? The blue line you can *barely* see is my normal water line. I am about to do a WC.

This coral was collected by my dad back in the 50's when he was stationed in the AF at Johnston Island. That fan is a good 12-14" across. It has been in storage for a few years and I recently came across it.

Finally, I would love some feedback on my powerhead/pump placement.

The two powerheads in the foreground are pointed at one another. The powerhead in the upper left is angled towards the front. The one in the middle is pointed directly at the front, and the return is also pointed towards the front. I am doing ok as far as dead spots. I am more trying to make my corals happy.

Also, just as a note for my ADD (lol), all my rocks have a lot of coralline algae growth. I recently did a rescape and turned some over.

I appreciate any feedback.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This coral was collected by my dad back in the 50's when he was stationed in the AF a

I would put those in the sump and get them live. Then get them in the tank.
you can cure/cycle them in a bucket of old tank water too.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

inally, I would love some feedback on my powerhead/pump placement.

if the flows good is good. cant see flow on a pic. But they look like it should be good.

 

[shollis2814]

Thanks! Funny about the coral and putting it in my tank. I had it in my tank at one point and someone on another forum told me to get it out and said having old coral skeletons in a tank was like having a broken down car in your yard. Mulitple people told me that so I pulled it out (I don't post much there anymore, ironically). So, I'll drop that in the sump this afternoon.

As per flow, I don't have dead spots. I was really looking more for coral placement with the flow or if anyone saw any corals too low or too high in the tank.

It's still a bit new. I just rescaped Saturday and my Frogspawn is still ticked and drawn up, but so far, polyps are out on everything.

 

[De Michieli]

I would modify the drip tray and make a scrubber

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks! Funny about the coral and putting it in my tank. I had it in my tank at one point and someone on another forum told me to get it out and said having old coral skeletons in a tank was like having a broken down car in your yard. Mulitple people told me that so I pulled it out (I don't post much there anymore, ironically). So, I'll drop that in the sump this afternoon.

As per flow, I don't have dead spots. I was really looking more for coral placement with the flow or if anyone saw any corals too low or too high in the tank.

It's still a bit new. I just rescaped Saturday and my Frogspawn is still ticked and drawn up, but so far, polyps are out on everything.

I guess they dont know what live rock is.
I like to get my flow the best I can in the tank. Then place the corals according to that.
one work of minor caution, the new/old rock may leech phosphate and you may have some organic dieoff. itll change your params temporarily depending on your system and water volume. thus the bucket suggestion.
Chato/macro fuge is easiest but the scrubbers seem pretty efficient.

 

[shollis2814]

I have a plastic knitting screen I got after reading about homemade scrubber. Can I run a scrubber horizontally? My first thought is to cut the screen to fit the tray and elevate it slightly on top of the tray. I'm thinking some test tube stoppers I could probably get from school (unused). Then, close up the gap where the tray meets the skimmer section to force more water over the tray. That would be easy to point the light over the tray that way.

 

[De Michieli]

I am not currently running a scrubber as I dont have the space on my 30 gal. I do not think you can run it horizontally as the water falls across the screen downward and thats where the algae grows I guess you could do it horizontally but I feel it will be very inefficient