d2mini
Reef enthusiast
Ok, so here's what's going on...
I have a CPR CY-192 that i'm using as my sump.
Here's what it looks like...
Sorry, the pic is small but how it works is the water drops in from the top on the very left near the front corner. It's really rushing in from my overflow and creates a lot of micro bubbles, big bubbles, etc. It's like niagara falls. Inside this same chamber is the pump/skimmer column. Then the water passes over an adjustable gate (this gate adjusts the water height in the first chamber, effecting the performance of the skimmer) and into the second chamber. Normally this chamber is filled with bio-bale as seen in the pic. The bio-bale sits on some of that plastic grating like used in frag tanks. The water flows over the gate, through a sheet of filter media, onto the bio-bale and filters down to an empty cavity in the base of that chamber, under the plastic grate. The water level here is at about 1/3rd the height of the chamber. Then what you can't really see in the pic is the last chamber that runs along the back of the unit behind the first chamber. This is where the outlet bulkhead is. On the left hand side wall. I have an external pump hooked up to this bulkhead sending water back up to the tank.
Now, I heard that when using live rock/sand the bio-bale is not needed and can actually be harmful. So i removed it. Instead, i have one layer of live rock rubble in there. The water level is above the top of the live rock so the rock is completely submersed. But there is a lot of space between the top of the water level and the filter pad above it. So the water flows onto the filter pad and then drops into the water below it, creating more bubbles/turbulence, rather than softly trickling through the bio-bale. You can see this in the pic below. So the water that enters the last chamber has micro bubbles in it and those are being sucked up by the pump and deposited into my tank.
So what I'm wondering is...
A) Can I add a lot more rock in there to give the water a lot more surface area to flow over, and lessening the turbulence in that chamber, hopefully creating less bubbles, even though half the rock would be above water?
or B) Can I add SOME bio-bale on top of the live rock, to act as that cushion, again slowing down the water fall, without ill effects?
Any thoughts on this?
Here's the pic of my actual setup... it's hard to see the right hand side chamber but you get the idea.
TIA!
I have a CPR CY-192 that i'm using as my sump.
Here's what it looks like...
Sorry, the pic is small but how it works is the water drops in from the top on the very left near the front corner. It's really rushing in from my overflow and creates a lot of micro bubbles, big bubbles, etc. It's like niagara falls. Inside this same chamber is the pump/skimmer column. Then the water passes over an adjustable gate (this gate adjusts the water height in the first chamber, effecting the performance of the skimmer) and into the second chamber. Normally this chamber is filled with bio-bale as seen in the pic. The bio-bale sits on some of that plastic grating like used in frag tanks. The water flows over the gate, through a sheet of filter media, onto the bio-bale and filters down to an empty cavity in the base of that chamber, under the plastic grate. The water level here is at about 1/3rd the height of the chamber. Then what you can't really see in the pic is the last chamber that runs along the back of the unit behind the first chamber. This is where the outlet bulkhead is. On the left hand side wall. I have an external pump hooked up to this bulkhead sending water back up to the tank.
Now, I heard that when using live rock/sand the bio-bale is not needed and can actually be harmful. So i removed it. Instead, i have one layer of live rock rubble in there. The water level is above the top of the live rock so the rock is completely submersed. But there is a lot of space between the top of the water level and the filter pad above it. So the water flows onto the filter pad and then drops into the water below it, creating more bubbles/turbulence, rather than softly trickling through the bio-bale. You can see this in the pic below. So the water that enters the last chamber has micro bubbles in it and those are being sucked up by the pump and deposited into my tank.
So what I'm wondering is...
A) Can I add a lot more rock in there to give the water a lot more surface area to flow over, and lessening the turbulence in that chamber, hopefully creating less bubbles, even though half the rock would be above water?
or B) Can I add SOME bio-bale on top of the live rock, to act as that cushion, again slowing down the water fall, without ill effects?
Any thoughts on this?
Here's the pic of my actual setup... it's hard to see the right hand side chamber but you get the idea.
TIA!
