Space use in RedSea "sump area"

as I have posted before I recently aquired my RedSea 130 that had been setup for 3+ years by the previous owner.

The move was everything down to the last drop of water and done "quickly" being that it's winter time up here. So there wasn't a whole lot of inspection, cleaning or changes time in the process. Also being new to salt and the tank being established I wanted to change/stress as little as possible and also get used to the workings myself.

So now we fast forward to yesterday and all is running along great other then in the back of my mind is still all the goop under the protien skimmer (item 2 & 3) that I had spotted both when moving and when I cleaned the skimmer and pump a lil while ago.

It was time for a water change so I shut off the pumps (item 9) and the skimmer pump (item 2) took the skimmer out as well as the two return pumps so I could inspect the media bags. I proceded to syphon my change water and the goop outta the bottom of both the two back sections. Putting the pumps (item 9) back in I forgot to put the media bags back down in the bottom again. (only way for the media bags in or out is to remove the pumps and that is a pita even with the ideal tank placement. They are sitting in the open space where the number 4 is figuring that should work just as well.

My question comes with a couple parts..

The media should be fine where I placed it (just carbon in the bag anyway).

The empty space under the skimmer and skimmer pump. Can it be made better use of somehow ? Place media there, sand bed?



and a shot going across the bottom back with the powerbar removed.


Thoughts?

 

Zoban, I believe the carbon placement will be fine where it is
is in the same flow path as it would have been under the pump, just more forward of its previous location, and if you can now remove it without taking the pump out etc, it seems very convenient to me to have it where you put it

any media you place in that void under the skimmer, would then have the same degree of inconvienience to it that the previous carbon placement had, in that you have to take the skimmer out in order to replace the media

Steve

 

Thanks Steve..

The skimmer is actually a LOT easier to remove then the flow/return pumps are.

Maybe some LR rubble down under it? Just see it as a pretty large empty space.

 

thats cool then
but do you think your tank will benefit from extra bio filtration capacity?

if it is easy to acces, may be worth considering it for additional means of chemical filtration, with maybe something that does not need changing regularly - something like Seachems Purigen in the pouch is something I have run for over 2 years now on my tank, and it definitely helps with water polishing in addition to being able to reduce low levels of nitrate to 0 IME ( starting level was 5ppm when I introduced it, and I have been between 0 on almost every test done since then ( when I get a slight reading, thats when I exchange the Purigen for a previously regenerated one)

Steve