for my birthday my refugium decided to make itself larger...

so i came home the other day and my sister tells me "your fish tank is all cloudy you should check it out". i rush downstairs to find that my refugium baffle decided to separate and caused a mess.

now at this point im not totally sure what to do. the return section of the sump was trashed. im probably going to just vaccum out the top layer of the sand to get rid of all the diatoms and such, pull the chaeto out and put it in the DT for the time being, scoop all the sand out into one set of buckets and then scoop out the kitty litter clay bottom into another set of buckets, then siphon all the water out of the sump, dry it out, clean it up, reseal the thing.

i used GE silicone II the first time around. i had no problems with this silicone in the past.

it sucks, im going to loose all the life thats been starting to grow in my fuge. its been up and running for exactly a month now

if that wasnt bad enough the ballasts on my light fixture blew out last week so im running on a 26W CFL 6500K on the left side of the tank where i have a little GSP. so mad about that too....

so i feel like all things are failing for me, but the fish and livestock are still fine. i just need to stay positive, save up the cash to get the light and fix this dang sump.

 

Sorry to hear, hang in there, fix everything and all will fall into place. How long did you let the silicone cure before you put the sump to use? Also did you go ugly heavy on the silicone for the baffle?

 

Sorry to hear that!
it looks like the fuge wall pushed out at the bottom into the return area? One thing I have done in the past to help equalize and support that pressure is cut strips of plexiglass to length and silicone them to the tank glass so that if a seal began to give the strip would limit the movement and prevent total failure.
hope that makes sense, sorry I dont have any pics to show what i'm talking about

good luck

 

i let it cure for 48 hours. i didnt go super heavy on the silicone. i noticed in my last sump i went super heavy on it and didnt have an issue. ill redo it with heaping amounts of silicone

yeah, bracing it would be a good thing im guessing. i have a full 6" bed of substrate between the sand/clay.

so im going to start with the project of fixing this mess.

i have a spare 10gal im going to use for a temporary spot for the skimmer while i work on the 40gal sump

 

if you can scoop all the fuge dirt into a container with a good 6" of water over it and a powerhead and a heater, that should save anything thats alive in there.

 

i dont have a big enough container at the moment. plus the sands on top of the clay. i dont wanna mix it all together do i? i need to try to keep that seperated still... so when i put it back in after im done resiliconing the baffle it is still clay on the bottom and sand on top

 

also might want to make sure that silicone is safe. i bought some this weekend to make my sump. (GE silicone ii). its says 100% silicone on the front but on the back it says not to use under water linefor food use (or something like that) or aquariums.


for got to add. i ended up getting marineland aquum silicone for like 50 cents cheaper a tube

 

Let it cure for a week before you put the sump in service.

Make sure the silicone does not have antimicrobial agents added. I think you want silicone I for this application.

 

ill pickup some "aquarium sealant"

 

ok that scared the crap out of me... i was disconnecting the plumbing from the sump so i could get it out and the bulkhead on one of the returns starts spraying water everywhere. i appaerently jar'ed it enough that it made it come loose. i thought i cracked the thing at first. scared the crap out of me. i immediately siphoned all the water out of the overflow chamber that was left in there (pumps been off since i started taking the sump out).

how the heck did that thing get loose?! i suppose the pvc vibrates a bit with the water flowing through it. i dont see how it'd loosen it though. should i silicone the bulkheads too?