How many of you are using Sumps?

[lienSlob]

What is the consensus on Sumps?

 

I am thinking of starting up a 20g display and am considering a sump with fuge. it would be a hangon back style. Maybe add a protein skimmer in it also

 

is this beneficial or just extra complications? How realistic is possibility of floodiing!>!>??

[tinyreef]

i use a sump on my nano, altho the line between refugium and sump is blurred sometimes so it depends on who you ask. it was originally a hob aquafuge that i flipped around (due to the baffles).

 

flooding is a very real issue. i've flooded twice. i'm using a backup ups on the return pump (the key) that's rated to run it for about four hours (i hope) after power loss. the best format is to calculate the volume overflow to match up with available space in the sump obviously but i also run a lee's skimmer in the sump (requires a certain water level). i cut the lee's down but it's still no enough extra volume for the floods. i'd suggest you plan around that aspect. (technical glitches screwed my original plan to heck)

 

a sump's beneficial but definitely not mandatory. i wanted it for an effective surface skimmer as my main concern. doing it over i probably would've saved myself the trouble. my new tank would be settled by now (going on five months now but some of that is my stupidity-80% X) ).

[coralreefengr]

I don't use either. A sump or refugium isn't a bad idea. I wouldn't mind having an overflow myself. Mostly because I'd like to put my heater in it. My heater popped of the glass one day and burned one of my corals. Fortunately, it's one of those corals you can't really kill and it's completely recovered. It's also a nice place to isolate some macro-algae and micro-fauna from the main tank.

 

I definitely would ditch the skimmer idea. You can probably still find an article on reefcentral.com by Dr. Ron about the usefulness of skimmers. The gist of it is that skimmers mostly just provide additional aeration in your tank and that you could be robbing your inhabitants of some nutrients by mechanically exporting.

 

My nano is doing great without the skimmer. I do have several filter feeders and some macro, which help compete for the nutrients. I haven't had a bad algae outbreak in awhile so I think things are pretty balanced.

 

I just don't like to add equipment that I don't really need.

[Aggie05]

I use a 5.5 gallon fuge behind my 10 gallon and it helps a lot. It sits above the 10 gallon so i pump the water into the fuge and it flows back out by gravity. This prevents flooding. I do like that it gives me the extra water volume and it also allows me a place to keep the heater and thermometer so it doesnt clutter up the display. It also gives you a place to test and do water changes and topoffs without disrupting the tank. I would say go for it, it can't hurt if set up right.