Skimmer in sump?????

Hmmm....Your tank is still fairly new right....it certainly won't hurt to take them out a little at a time...perhaps by thirds?

 

Thinking about this a bit more....I can make the return side just big enough for the pump to fit in giving me more room on the skimmer side. This way I can add say half or a bit more of the bio-balls on the skimmer side to not affect anything. let that run for a few weeks and slowly start to remove the balls then???

This makes me want to start tonight.... ;D

Think I will wait until I return from AZ though in a few weeks. Don't need any mishaps while I am away.

Thank you again Birdlady. I think by making the skimmer side bigger and adding the bio-balls in the skimmer side will suffice don't you? I'll just add a divider between the skimmer pump and bio-balls and drill holes into it or leave about a 2" gap on the bottom of the divider.

My brain is hurting now. I think I have Dain Bramage from all this thinking.

 

I have been reading as much as I can on these refugiums and came across the Ecosystem method. No skimmer???? Does anyone have experience with this method? It would save running 2 pumps, just not sure if I am buying into the idea of no skimmer though.

Anyone???

 

You might want to start a new thread on that. Actually if you search on the refugium board you'll find a lot. I say keep the skimmer. Many run that setup with a skimmer anyway.

 

I am going to keep the skimmer I think. Not sure I want to do without it seeing all the gunk it removes. Thanks for the wake up call Matt.

Todd

 

I just need to decide now if I want to use my existing wet/dry and convert it to the fuge, or use my spare 10G I have. I am thinking of using the 10g. Never know if a new tank is in the future or what.

 

Well I took the plunge so to speak and used the 10g I have and made some partitions in it for the inlet, fuge, return. It took 30 minutes or so which I thought was good. I did not go for looks or a perfect silicone job. Just put it together to see if what my brain had pictured would work. I tested for leaks and have 1 tiny one. So I emptied it and re-siliconed everything just to be safe. I will re-check in a few hours and if all is good, take pics of my creation....

To sum it up....Inlet side is 4 inches for the skimmer pump..the skimmer will be outside of the tank...that flows into a baffle for the bio balls 3 1/2"....then into the fuge. The fuge area is roughly 10 1/2" inches....in there I will add sand of course and whatever the pros recommend for algae...that then flows through a 2 inch gap into the return area. Hopefully this will work. If it does, I will do a 29g for the bigger tank.

Thanks Birdlady for your help. I will post pics later if it holds water.

Todd

 

No problemo! ;D
Just a side note, I do know a couple of folks in my reef club that use the ecosystem (mud) with no skimmer with excellent results. If course, I have cleaned a skimmer cup and therefore cannot seem to wrap my mind around the concept of no skimmer....where would all that disgusting crud go???

Hope your plan works out there! Sounds good!

 

Look slike everything is holding....here are 2 pics...not the best in the world, but it should be functional I hope. Flow is from left to right

 

2nd pic...

1 st section is skimmer pump...2nd is bio-balls, 3rd of course is fuge...3-4" of live sand I am thinking...4th is the return pump. If I missed something please chime in now. I need a light and the sand still. Hopefully this weekend for that and then test it. I plan to remove the bio-balls a handful at a time once this has cycled for a few weeks until they are gone. Any opinions on that?

T