New Tank

[Thomalop]

Hello, I am new to the hobby and starting a 75 gallon saltwater. I am going to keep just live rock, fish and some anemones.

I am going to build a 20 gallon sump. My question is on the pump and skimmer. I was going to purchase a Sea Clone 100 (it will be in the sump) and use a MAG 7 return pump. Do you think this would be sufficient?

Also how manny baffles shoud I use on the sump pump? Should I add any media?

If anyone has photos of their sumps I would love to see them!

Thanks in advance.

[BangkokMatt]

[welcome]
Don't use any media, just have plenty of live rock. That will do the job just fine.
I have 3 baffles in my sump and that enables me to put all of my kit in and have a fuge. If you are building a sump build it as big as you possibly can. It will pay dividends.
I will post a pic of mine later.
If you want anemones you should wait at 3 months before you add one. Let you system properly settle.
Sorry, but can't comment on the skimmer and return as I have no experience of them.

[saltysteven]

this site has everything you want to know-
if you still have questions after checking it out , just ask.
he's got some great sump set ups on his site!
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

[albatross666]

Hi

I did some research when I did my setup, so let me try to give you a pointer or two.

Use at lease 3 baffles. If you can do 4 baffles, to help cut the bubble drift for one chamber to the next.

If you are building the sump yourself, add covers where-ever possible! This helps reduce evaporation. Some say that this also has a negative efect of reducing oxygen exchange, but in my opinon, the skimmer does a whole lot of oxygen resupply. Maybe some other members can comment and help out here? I have a cover (cut piece of plexiglass)

If you are not going to have a refuge, no need to add any substrate. Instead, you can use it to place live rock to boost your bacteria surface. Of course, this live rock will not have any groth on it, but it will serve well.

Hope this helps.

[Thomalop]

Thanks for your help.