Quote:
Originally Posted by ionracing
still dont understand why a RR tank and fresh dont mix. i read what you wrote but i have never seen any issue with a fresh tank in a overflow/sump set up. I will do more research and figur it out. Either way i will get a rr tank but i might be capping the holes.........we'll see
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I think I should have clarified the "detrimental" part a little better in my first reply. If you are aware of the differences in the way the two systems work - overflow vs. HOB filtration - then you can make it work.
There are two major differences in the two:
1) How water gets into the filter. The overflow uses gravity to feed the pump and the pump puts the water back into the tank. The HOB uses the pump to put water into the filter and uses gravity to put it back. I can't talk about canisters because I have never used one. That difference is monumental if you don't realize it and plan for it properly.
2) Where the water comes from to the filter. And that is directly related to #1. The water that is put into an HOB filter comes from the bottom of the water column and is returned to the top of the tank. The water that is put in the overflow system comes from the top and is returned to the top. The water at the bottom of the tank doesn't get mixed in as well because the circular pattern isn't there - unless you create it yourself.
Those two differences, unless you are aware of them, can be catastrophic. And I know that from personal experience with it. The tank was up and running for two months when I looked at it New Years Eve and saw a dead fish in the tank. I removed him and you could smell the ammonia. I tested that tank the Saturday before and everything was normal as far as water parameters went. Monday night, I have a dead fish and a strong ammonia smell. I tested the water, the ammonia levels were astronomical. Just a cheap test strip test. The directions say wait 30 seconds, I didn't wait but 5 seconds to get an off-the-chart reading. 80% water change, get the levels back down. That scenario repeated itself New Years day. Another 80% water change. Jan 2, I wondered if my test strips were bad. Had Petco test it, same results. I bought my API
ammonia test kit that day and got the same results. Three days in a row I had ammonia spikes that were ridiculously crazy.
The culprit? Floating food and the overflow water flow pattern. That third day I pulled the lid off my wet/dry and almost passed out from the smell. The food was floating to the drain, down the drain, and getting trapped by the
filter pad in the wet/dry. It had rotted and I had a culture of worms living there. After removing the filter (and not replacing it), the tank has been normal and fine since then.
In the end, the solution to my food problem was me putting a timer on my return pump that turns it off 30 minutes before an automatic feeder feeds them. It lets the water stop flowing so the food doesn't go down the drain but lets the fish eat it instead. Then it turns back on 10 minutes after feeding.
Can you make an overflow tank setup work with FW? Absolutely. But, if you aren't aware of the differences it makes, you will experience the same types of problems with it that I did. I think the reason you don't see that type of problem in SW tanks is because the amount of flow in the tank is totally different - especially with a Reef Tank.
Good luck with the tank, but please try to learn from my mistakes. My mistakes are part of the reason I ask most of the questions I ask in GRD with regards to SW tanks. I want to learn from others mistakes in the hopes that I don't repeat them.
