I made this post http://delreefclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=28&topic=4304.0 earlier today about hang on protein skimmers for our 75 gallon fish only tank with a hang on filter. I was talking to my fiancee about the protein skimmers and spending part of our tax return on getting a good hang on skimmer when he had a brillent idea… “why don’t we just spend the money to get a good set up?” It seems like it would be a better idea to just start over and get a sump (a term I have seen thrown around a lot when discussing why my filter isn’t the ‘best’). Would it be a wise choice to upgrade to something better now? Down the road (years from now) we do plan on doing a coral and fish tank… but for the time being (and being noobs) we want to just do fish only, so we will end up upgrading eventually.
If so, I know NOTHING at all about sumps. I am just starting to get the hang of what we have going on now. Can someone guide me in the right direction or let me know where I should go to research sumps.
Thanks in advance! I am really glad I have somewhere to go to ask these questions!
Can you make it to the meeting tonight? A lot easier to get information quickly talking to people then it is to type back and forth. Would be worth it to come if you can.
No need to upgrade everything down the line when you get corals. Fish are dirty animals corals require a LOT less food. If you ask me I think it is easier to start with “corals” depending on what species your actually looking at. Zoanthids and Protopalythoa often grow where the natives… waste water floods into the ocean. They are a lot hardier then fish.
Look at getting a reef ready tank to start with. Or consider having a glass tank drilled properly and building your own overflow box.
What kind of set up you might want often ends up depending on how hands on and DIYS you want to be.
Do you have an RODI unit yet? Clean water is step one with maintaining a beautiful tank. If you aren’t sure what I mean by RODI start reading there.
Consider getting a good book like Sprung’s Reef Aquarium Vol 3. You may also want to pick up Algae a problem solvers guide. It is impossible to keep a marine aquarium for more then a week with out encountering algae of some sort. 20 minutes reading a good book is a heck of a lot better then 4 hours of random surfing around on forums online.
Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the meeting! We have a 14 month old with an early bed time and almost no baby sitting options around us. We are going to try and make it to a meeting eventually though. We do not have a RODI yet but it is on our list to purchase with our tax return as well. Thank you for the book suggestion, I will be purchasing it! Surfing the internet for answers does get overwhelming because everyone has something different to say. We were under the impression fish only was much easier then coral, that is why we went with fish only. Thank you for your advice!
Here is a video of the first sump I built about a year ago and is still up and running great Refugium sump - YouTube the only thing I would do different and a key rule to building a sump is to build it around your skimmer or you will be limited on choices also I made an over flow out of PVC siphon tube although it works great there are some down falls " like fish getting sucked in" but it is a real easy diy project that can save u alot of money and the ask 100 eshopps skimmer you mentioned is a great skimmer I have the 75 version I got for $100 e bay
Well you don’t have to search too much. Just ask here and you’ll get the right answer everytime 
OK that was sarcasm - very often there is no “right” answer - just someone’s preffered way of doing it.
A sump is just a container that sits seperate (usually right under in the stand) from the display tank. Sumps can be made from other tanks, plastic buckets, rubbermain containers, old bathtubs… smaller aquariums are reccomended though. The display tank drains to the sump either via and overflow box (I don’t reccomend) or via a “reef-ready” which means it’s drilled and you can connect plumbing, either PVC or vinyl tubing. The sump will have a return pump which pushes the water from the sump back to the display tank.
Having a sump is ideal as it gives you somewhere to hide all the things that clutter a display tank like your heaters, skimmers, thermometers etc.
You can buy a premade commercial sump but to be honest I think they’re just overpriced. The best bet is to research how to build your own out of a smaller tank (20g long, and 29g standards seem to be popular for sumps) or ask here I’m sure someone would be willing to build you one at a fair price.
But the first step is to go to your local store and take a look at options to get the water from the display tank to the sump - again it’s wither buying a reef-ready tank, or drilling one yourself (or having someone do it for you).
Do you have other reefers nearby that you can go over to look at their set-ups?
I’m by Christiana Mall if you ever want to swing by and see what I’m talking about.
Oh and Fish Only is considered easier because you don’t need special lighting and your parameters don’t have to be as dead on. You don’t have to worry about calcium, alkalinity, flow, T5 or MH or LED lights etc.
[quote=“Reefer, post:4, topic:3938”]
there are some down falls " like fish getting sucked in"[/quote]
A rolled up piece of gutter guard stuck in the PVC will keep that from happening.
i have a pro clear model 75 i would part with for $25. it is just the wet dry sump. it has no overflow box. is your tank reef ready?
