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Nasty film on sump water.

1525 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  remarkosmoc, 
S
Just got my first sump up and running last week and I noticed today that there is almost no water movement in the sump at the top of the water. I had to stir it up because it was getting bad. What do you guys do to prevent this? I was thinking of a powerhead maybe two so there wouldn't be dead spots. I'm all out of extra powerheads so I thought I would check with you guys before I buy something tomorrow to fix this problem.
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kingdave
I've got the same dilemma and I'm probably going to setup an air pump and air stone to agitate the surface of the water in the sump a bit. I just need to find an air pump that isn't too noisy.
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K
Not sure what your sump is like but I would have a divider in there so the water has to flow over that divider and fall into the next compartment before it gets sucked up again. That would mix it up good and put some air into it too.
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S
Here is a picture of it. It is roughly 34" wide 24" deep 16" tall. As you can see with the way it is setup I can't really get a divider in there. I was thinking the airpump/bubbles also but wasn't sure if a bunch of bubbles would be pushed into main tanks and possibily mess with the siphon of overflows. :-? :-? :-? I just called the fish store about 30 minutes ago and they are out of maxi-jets and I'm not sure if I want to buy a cheaper powerhead at petsmart or just order one online.
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remarkosmoc
Instead of adding more equipment just to move the water in the sump more, you could redirect a little of the return water with a gate valve to go back into the sump instead of the tank and position this in such a manner as to maximize surface movement in the sump.
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tannable75 said:
Instead of adding more equipment just to move the water in the sump more, you could redirect a little of the return water with a gate valve to go back into the sump instead of the tank and position this in such a manner as to maximize surface movement in the sump.
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:D :thumb: :D

I will give this a try don't know why I didn't even think to try this. The 3/4 pipe that splits and goes to both filters is already doing this. When I piped it I thought it would be a good idea to have the extra water that my overflow couldn't handle go through the filters. But I think enough water is already going through the filters from the overflows. The line already has a ball valve on it so I will just re-route the pipe down to the surface of the water and see what happens.
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S
Moved that extra water flow I had going to the filters to a upside down home made spray bar and it works great. I originally was going to just cap the top of the T but when I kept cap off it seems to be more powerful with the air pushing through it so I just put a couple of 90's on it pointing down just encase and problem solved.

tannable75 I owe you a cold one!!! :thumb:


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remarkosmoc
I"ll take it :thumb:
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