[dinor2]

I am puzzled by my sump and thought someone here would know what to do!

I have an in tank sump in my 55gal tank; it has two larger square portions with a thinner portion in between them for the protein skimmer and one more thinner section on the right side of the right square.... clear as mud yet?
Anyways, the guy I bought this system from says he ran a 900 maxijet from the left square and had the pump putting the water over the spillway back into the main part of the tank.....

My question now is, what about the right square? The right square has a long white tube in the middle of it and the water is not circulating at all thru this section! The skimmer part is working fine and the left square is circulating the water well but the right one remains stagnate and I'm assuming I do not want to leave it this way!

Or, is it suposed to do this and I just put live rock inside the 'still' right side? Please help! It's only been cycling for a week but I'm getting a batch of live rock tomorrow and would like to get this straightened out before then!

Thanks in advance!
dinor2

[Lowej82]

you sure the white pipe isnt for another overflow orto bring water bacck in somehow?

Im sure you dont want the water just stting in there not moving,,,,,,, if not using this chamber i would put a powerhead big enough to turn the water over and create a flow in and out of it. and if you wanted to put some LR in there id think doing some and making water flow through it with upwards flow, might make a decent little bio filter a good place for bacteria to have a place to colinize.

Most definalty dont let any water stand still even in your tank dead spots cause trouble food & waste tend to buildup in them.

You will be getting some more post soon from some very smart marine bio group of ppl, who will tell you whatthe purpose of the white tube is and probally correct me on something.

Good Luck To You..........John

[dinor2]

Thanks John, I appreciate your thoughts! One thing I did not mention before was that as I filled the left chamber, I noticed that the right chamber only filled with water after the left was full and the water came up and out of that white tube...

I'm sure this is a pretty common sense thing to figure out but I do appreciate the smart people helping me with this one; this is my first saltwater tank, let alone reef tank and by golly I want to do it right the first time, before I put any fish or crabs in it!

Thanks again!
Dana

[Lowej82]

hmmm, Maybe theres a powerhead to pump water from the rightside through that pipe and into the left chamber.

[dinor2]

Ahhh, I'll have to try that! The previous owner had some kind of huge cylindrical filter thing over it so I wonder if that's why all his fish kept dying, that part of the water wasn't going anywhere!

Ok, I have a 900 maxijet in the left side pumping the water back into the tank so instead.... I'll have the hose I connected to the outflow go down and 'thread' it to the white tube..... this will be interesting!

Thanks again!
Dana

[Lowej82]

that cylinder thing could have been somekind of protien skimmer. Make sure the tank is good and clean before you try and cycle it if his fish kept dying youd be good off spend agood deal of time cleaning it, I would make run some vinager water through it it cleans off alot of stuff in the tank good. Also I would try and post a detailed picture's of your setup so they will know just how to direct you.

HAVE A GOOD DAY & GL

John

[dinor2]

Here are some pics of what my sump looks like at the moment.

I did try reversing the pump but the water wouldn't come back out the white tube fast enough to fill it.... (sigh).

Do these pics look familiar to anyone!?.....

~Dana
P.S. I'm still new to this site so if the pics don't come thru I'll try again but they should be here....

Thanks!

[glampka]

Need better picture posts. Can't tell what anything is.

[dinor2]

Sorry about the tiny pics, my camera takes too big a picture and I couldn't get it uploaded here unless it is a thumbnail...

ANyways, basically from left to right is : a square section that is empty (has water), the protein skimmer with airsone in front of it, the right square section that also is filled with water but has the long white tube in it, then a skinny section next to that....

I was thinking this might be a DAS tank but not sure. All I know is I can get the water flow working in this sump!

[Lowej82]

try uploading pics to Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket and paste a link on here

[dinor2]

Let's see if this one looks better....

~Dana

[dinor2]

I am happy to say I now know how my overflow/filter works! The guy who sold it to me finally found what model I have, which is a DAS H39.

Soooooo, basically I have a refugum in there, a protein skimmer and a place for the water to be pumped back into the tank, that's it!

Thank you SO, SO, SO much for all of your help! I thought it'd be good to have closer on this though!

Have a great weekend!
Dana