The life support system under my display tank was starting to look pretty sloppy and in need of a rebuild. I had several projects planned waiting to be done and with picking up a new Ecotech pump from TroyReeF, I finnaly decided it was time to dedicate a Sunday to tearing down the underbelly and showing it a little TLC.
Here is the old cobbled sump/fuge. I had an old wet/dry sump laying around. In the main chamber, I had live rock and had T'd off the single over flow. Return pump, heaters, and cheato all sat in the second chamber. This was less than ideal as there really wasn't a second overflow and detritus collected in the bottom. I had to jam a prefilter in front of the return to keep the detritus and cheato from clogging the pump. I also had a secondary in tank filter to try and combat the detritus build up and provide flow for the cheato. This then compounded the problem since I needed more outlets and thus had to daisy chain a second power strip.
Old overflow layout. I only had a single overflow line which really gave no failsafe.
Right then, enough of that sorry excuse for a sump!
First up was drilling a second overflow. It took an online shopping trip to amazon, but I picked up Slip/Slip/MIPT Tee fittings. This allowed for a very low profile connection to a threaded bulkhead. ditched the flex hose for ridged plumbing and a coupling.
I then removed the sump, cut and installed three baffles, to turn the 2 chambers into four. I also took the time to replace the power strip with a nicer, breakered, model.
another view of the new setup.
Now i have plenty of room to spread things out. Plus opened up extra space, for a skimmer, doser, and or autotop-off down the line! I'll give it a day or two and we will be ready to fill and be back in business!