Will I have to vacuum the tank?

[JoeW]

I have a 265 gal reef tank with a deep sand bed, and I am planning a bare bottom 400 gal tank. Is there any way to avoid having to vacuum detritus from the bottom of the tank?

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by JoeW
I have a 265 gal reef tank with a deep sand bed, and I am planning a bare bottom 400 gal tank. Is there any way to avoid having to vacuum detritus from the bottom of the tank?

Not put anything in it LOL, sorry had to say it...

I have seen people setup spraybars along the bottom back to keep the detritus in the water column to send it to the sump... I have never done this so I am not sure how effective it is...

Shawn

[asnatlas]

I sent Travis a PM to check out this thread as I believe he has a setup like I stated above...

Shawn

[Travis]

FLOW. That is all you need. Some people (myself included) use spraybars. I also have my rock eleveted off the bottom of the tank. Other people use streams or penductors pointed towards the bottom of the tank. Just keep the flow high so the detritus can't settle out in the tank and have a powerful skimmer that can remove it as it goes through the sump. In the end, it is literally impossible to never need to siphon detritus from the tank. There will always be 1 or 2 spots that it will still collect. I get about 2-4 Tbls. of detritus in my display that needs to be siphoned every other month. You will be siphoning the sump a lot as the detritus will collect there. I siphon mine every other week when I do a water change.

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Travis
FLOW. That is all you need. Some people (myself included) use spraybars. I also have my rock eleveted off the bottom of the tank. Other people use streams or penductors pointed towards the bottom of the tank. Just keep the flow high so the detritus can't settle out in the tank and have a powerful skimmer that can remove it as it goes through the sump. In the end, it is literally impossible to never need to siphon detritus from the tank. There will always be 1 or 2 spots that it will still collect. I get about 2-4 Tbls. of detritus in my display that needs to be siphoned every other month. You will be siphoning the sump a lot as the detritus will collect there. I siphon mine every other week when I do a water change.

Thanks for the reply Travis I knew you could speak from exp...

Shawn

[JoeW]

Thanks, Shawn and Travis.

How much flow? I know that many aquarists favor closed loop systems. For various reasons, I am hoping to get away without one.

I have a single Hayward pump in my 265, and it provides all the flow in my system. It is throttled way down because the drains from my display tank to the sump are not large enough. I certainly want to improve upon this.

I am thinking of having 2 Hayward pumps, or the equivalent, in my new system. Both would circulate water between the sump and the display tank, the returns on opposite sides of the tank. And I will have 2 overflows on the 2 sides of the tank, each with a 2 inch drain. This way I will always have a backup. I could run the 2 pumps together or alternate them, say on a 6 hour schedule.

Is that enough flow?

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by JoeW
Thanks, Shawn and Travis.

How much flow? I know that many aquarists favor closed loop systems. For various reasons, I am hoping to get away without one.

I personally don't like CLs... On my 600gal, I am going with 6 Tunzes (2x6200s and 4x6100s)... I will more then likely have dead spots in the tank where detritus will collect, but I have some extra MAG pumps lying around that I plan on using for a vacuum... I will have a hose hooked up to the input side of the MAG and have it feed into a filter bag so that the water is being cycled back into the tank, but collecting the detritus in the filter bag... In the sump I will suck out the detritus collected in there with water changes...

Shawn

[Travis]

JoeW, there is no magic number to how much flow it will take. It is more about what you do with the flow. I can pretty much guarantee you that you will not have enough flow from returns alone, without having major microbubble issues. What might help is to put some penductors on your returns. That will increase the flow in the tank while at the same time decreasing the flow between the tank/sump loop. Even then, I think you may still need to add a CL or internal pumps.

[Travis]

Originally posted by asnatlas
I will have a hose hooked up to the input side of the MAG and have it feed into a filter bag so that the water is being cycled back into the tank, but collecting the detritus in the filter bag...

Shawn, why not just siphon instead of using the hose hooked to the mag? I envision the mag in the tank becoming a nuisance as your corals grow in. If I am low on water change water and don't want to lose water during a siphoning of the tank I just take a filter sock and stick it in the sump using a plastic clamp to hold it above the water level. I then just stick the outlet of the siphon hose in sock. Same thing you were describing minus the mag pump.

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Travis
Shawn, why not just siphon instead of using the hose hooked to the mag? I envision the mag in the tank becoming a nuisance as your corals grow in. If I am low on water change water and don't want to lose water during a siphoning of the tank I just take a filter sock and stick it in the sump using a plastic clamp to hold it above the water level. I then just stick the outlet of the siphon hose in sock. Same thing you were describing minus the mag pump.

I would but the Tank is on one side of the wall and the sump (and everything else) is behind the wall (kinda like dgasmd with his garage setup)... That is the only reason I am going to use the MAG because I am not sure I would be able to get a tube from the display to the sump

Shawn

[JoeW]

What is a penductor?

Also, I have read about the "Sea Swirl" and am wondering how it compares to the Tunze product.

[Travis]

Penductor info:
http://www.kthsales.com/website/Misc...nthusiasts.htm

Sea Swirls are great, IME. They will take the flow you are already getting from a CL or return pump and alternate it 180 degrees. Do plan on replacing the motor about every other year.

[PalmTree]

Replace the motor on a sea swirl every year? Really?

[Travis]

Every other year has been my experience with them. It is a $40 replacement cost with shipping, IIRC.

[pmrogers]

Every 18 months is my experience. 4 Seaswirls, and 2 died at 12 months. I was able to fix one of the 2 myself with a little gorilla glue. The other was $40 with shipping to repair.