My sump tank - please feedback

[riveria]

hi bros, sis,

still have some ammonia and nitrite despite cycling for close to a month.

fishes fall sick despite freshwater dip for every new additions.

wondering if it's my sump tank's design/ layout problem.

attaching the picture of my sump. hope you can feedback on what i should do to improve it.

btw, i'm using a HOB skimmer, eheim 1262 return pump, and MP40W wavemaker.

it's a FOWLR tank.

here is the picture. appreciate your feedback

[marinakid]

wow. no offense, just my personal opinion. look like some deserted war zone.

[jackywongto]

wow. no offense, just my personal opinion. look like some deserted war zone.

lol... i like your comment Michael!

[riveria]

haha... yeah, i chucked everything into the sump..

[jackywongto]

how big is your tank bro and what is that skimmer? MCE ?

and btw, did you do any water parameters test?

[Goondoo]

fishes fall sick despite freshwater dip for every new additions.

You dipped the fishes??!?!

[comycus]

still have some ammonia and nitrite despite cycling for close to a month.

fishes fall sick despite freshwater dip for every new additions.

This sounds like the problem to me. Can you explain what you mean by cycling your tank? Did you add any fishes when you were cycling? If you completed the proper cycling, ammonia and nitrite should have been zero at the end. If there is ammonia and nitrite present, a lot of fishes will not only fall sick but also die. Doesn't matter what freshwater dip or miracle medicine you feed them.

You should do something about your sump. It looks to me like the water level in your sump does not cover your live rock completely. That can result in that part of the LR rotting, and contributing to your ammonia and nitrite levels. With all the clutter, I wouldn't be surprised if something is rottin inside your sump and you won't know a thing coz you can hardly see in it.

In short, there's prob nothing wrong with your sump design. Rather, you need to manage your sump better and do some emergency action to bring down your tank's ammonia and nitrites.

Can start off by clearing your LR in the sump. Is that biohome I see in your other compartment? If it is, you can take out your LR in the sump and do away with them. If you don't have biohome, buy it as it is more space saving than using those bulky LR. Dose 2x-3x of normal dosage of bacteria to help kickstart your bacteria colonies. Adding Chemipure or some other good activated carbon where there is good water flow in your sump so it can absorb your ammonia.

And stop adding any fishes into your tank until everything settles down. Best is you can transfer your current fishes to a better environment or risk losing them.

[yikai]

your liverock in your sump tank is white and green. clear signs of dead rocks.... leeching ammonia, PO4, NO3, NO2 and the works.

i think it's pretty obvious what you must do now. get rid of them and tidy up your sump.

2ndly, freshwater dips can be useful but dangerous unless done properly. match the pH of your freshwater with that of your seawater. make sure it's the same then put the fish in for 5-10 minutes and remove it.

it's more stressful for the fish. i rather you run hyposalinity.

this method works only for ich. your fishes are dyign not from ich but from your poor water quality

[lingen]

to TS, i may not have much experience but i agree with what other member have said. ur sump seriously looks damn messy. hope u can tidy up the sump and maintain good water quality before adding fishes in.

[riveria]

points taken bros.

when i recalled more in depth:

i remembered ammonia dropped to zero after one month of cycling.

after that, i stocked with fishes. everything went ok until a pair of cleaner wrasses went missing.

as a result of that, ammonia started to rise.

i sort of expected the liverocks to handle this rise, but it didn't.

hence started this thread to ask if my sump got problem.

got the answer now.

will proceed with removing the liverocks in sump and dose bacteria more frequently.

[yikai]

fish die in your tank should not cause ammonia spike. the whole reason of cycling is for bacteria to grow enough to handle all ammonia produce before it gets a chance to pollute your tank.

a rise in ammonia after cycling simply means your biological system is failing as a result of poor cycling or lack of bacteria.

[riveria]

just finished water test:

ammonia: btw 0 and 0.25

nitrite: 0.1

nitrate: 0 ?

strange reading. btw, i just changed close to 50L of NSW water on Sunday.

skimmer: deltec mce600

[jackywongto]

just finished water test:

ammonia: btw 0 and 0.25

nitrite: 0.1

nitrate: 0 ?

strange reading. btw, i just changed close to 50L of NSW water on Sunday.

skimmer: deltec mce600

bro....

Can I suggest this?

clear the rocks in the sump.

clean up the sump. siphon out the detritus. place a bag of biohomme in the sump.

Get a filter sock and place it under your pipe - let the overflow water go straight into the filter sock.

you can place the carbon and phosphate remover in your mce instead like what I do. (alternatively can also place them in the sump)

you can try Pura carbon/ Pura complete. quite good.

get rid of the light in the sump.

drop a piece of polyfilter into the sump. just leave it the sump tank.

your tank have some live rocks in your main tank right? dose bacteria according to reccommended qty.

do WC regular for the next few weeks... best using salt mix water as I have encountered bad quality NSW before.

do not add any new Livestock till your water params are ok.

good luck bro.

[jackywongto]

just to add on... usually for a sump.

typically, the 1st layer will be used it for mechanical filtration (cotton filters) as the 1st layer.

This will remove unwanted food, detritus.

Then the water through the chemical filtration - carbon, phosphate removers

and finally through a biological filtration - live rocks/ biohommes.

For your case, it seems that the water just flow into a pile of liverocks.

So food/ dirt overflowing into these rocks will then to pile and gather up there.

over time, there will be a lot of detritus built up.

honestly I am not sure how effective those LRs are given the state of the sump, maybe it is , maybe it isn't ... I really dunno...

keep us posted on your progress after 2 - 3 weeks bro.

good case studies for all of us.

[DUCADOS]

Messy sump + things lying everywhere around your sump.

Quite hard to tell where your water flow n return pump located etc...

Must be neat la dude...

[anothermix]

the pic is down! cant see would be great if i could get references XD