24 Gallon Nano with sump questions

[rmeugene]

Well...I bought a setup a couple of weeks ago. Got everything going last Saturday with live rock and sand and came home that evening to a busted out wall on the sump and water all over my wife's brand new carpet. This was caused what I think by the heater not being submersed for about 30 seconds and cracking without me realizing it and then exploding at some point which blew out the side wall of the sump.

So my return to the hobby after 25 years has gotten off to a rocky start. I will say though that there have been numerous people that I have met from chicagoreefs that have been AWESOME - Ernie (Midnight), Dave (Chicagofishguy) and Will (Will Lutman). Thanks again guys!

Sorry had to get that off my chest before asking a couple of questions.

I am having a new sump built and before it arrives I just have a couple of questions. This is a 24g nano that is drilled 1.5". The back chambers of the tank are empty of any type of media. The partition between the 1st and 2nd has not been modified. The partition between the 2nd and 3rd has been cut lower. This was allowing some water to flow into the 3rd chamber which housed the stock pump running flow threw a UV unit and back into the tank thru a hydor rotating nozzle attached to the stock return. The return from the sump was being fed back to the tank thru the stock flare nozzle placed about an inch the the left of the stock return.

My questions are:
Do I leave it that way? I was thinking at a minimum of moving the return from the sump as far to the left as possible to get more of a flow to different parts of the tank. But I am not sure if placing that close to the stock outlet is ok. Thoughts?

I have also been told that I should not run the UV. This is going to be a reef tank with most likely only a couple of clowns for fish. That being said do I just leave the stock pump with has been running thru the UV in place and just providing some flow thru the stock return with the hydor nozzle?

Hoping my sump will be here this weekend so I would like to get things figured out. Currently have the tank filled as far as possible with 2 submersibles circulating water so my $240 in live rock stays 'healthy'!

 

[William Lutman]

Bump for Rick
You can either split return or add circulation pump. Glad I could do the sump, need to add some picture so we can all understand what you a thinking on return lines

 

[Herbie]

Welcome (if i missed saying it before). MHO You may want to focus on improving the pump with the UV for more flow. The return isn't technically supposed to be where you get the majority of the flow for your tank though that is one area where I bend the rules myself. Letting the water run slower through your sump will help your skimmer and any lr in the sump do its job. On the UV: there are a lot of differing opinions on it but I run a jbj nanozap on my nc28 and I think it helps control the green stuff and can help prevent problems that a larger tank could absorb. In such a small volume you're most likely going to be doing consistent WCs or dosing/supplementing various nutrients and minerals so the negative impact to biofiltration or pro biotics with a UV should be outweighed by the additional water quality and baseline control. It's not ideal to increase flow through a UV but again, in your volume all the water will have plenty of time in the black light. You might even want an additional PH in there like a koralia nano or even an mp10 if you want to get all kornbread with it. Seeing the return would definitely help us with that part of the question. Keep us posted with what you decide. Good luck

 

[rmeugene]

Here are some pics. The left chamber is empty and the water flows under the partition into the middle chamber. The tank is drilled 1.5" to supply the sump. The partition between the middle and right chamber was cut down to allow some of the water to flow into the right chamber. In that chamber is the stock Accela SP1/1000 with a UV and then returning to the tank thru the far right return which had a hydor rotating nozzle. The return from the sump flows back into the tank thru the flare nozzle to the left of the other nozzle. It is a Danner SP-400. I also just purchased a Rio 1400. I was going to replace the stock pump with the Danner and use the small one for a mixing/transfer pump.

My question is can I/should I move the the return from the sump more towards the left to get flow from a different direction in the tank. I do not know how close I can/should go to the supply to the sump. The previous owner said that he has plenty of flow and had a reef type setup.

View attachment 13686View attachment 13687View attachment 13688