Bringing Basement Sump online

[NateHanson]

On Saturday I managed to get the plumbing done for my basement sump and ran the spaflex up to the tank. Once I've got water mixed, I think I'm going to connect the drain and return hoses to test the plumbing and pump, and circulate water through the sump for a few days. Then I should be ready to drain my tank overflow, replace the bulkheads with the new plumbing hooked up, and let 'er rip.

I'm wondering what you folks suggest for acclimating the tank to the new 40-50 gallons of sump water? Any suggestions? I'll certainly test and equalize all water parameters first. Then maybe exchange 5 gallons a day for a couple days before flipping the switch? What did some of you do when you brought large sumps online? I think Dawn and Bec have done this recently? I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't.

Thanks, Nate

 

[Reef55]

Mixing the two ahead of time during the day you are going to turn on the return pump is a good idea. Also, when you turn on your return pump, have it dialed way back for a while to let the rest slowly mix.

 

[~Flighty~]

It will be like a 40% water change. I bet you won't have much of a problem. You could turn it on for a few minutes and turn it off again a few times to do it more like an acclimation, but I doubt you would even need to do that if the temp and salinity are dead on. I would worry more about the new flow patterns.

 

[NateHanson]

Flow patterns shouldn't change too much. I have about 350-400 gph going into the tank from the under-tank sump right now, and that will probably go up to about 600gph for starters, and maybe 800ghp a little later if the overflow comb and drain can keep up.

When I make the conversion I'll have to disconnect the current sump, so I can't go back and forth over the course of a day to equalize things. The skimmer, heater, etc, will be in the new sump, so I think I'll want to keep at least some flow going through there the whole time after I switch the plumbing. So I don't think switching the pump on and off periodically will be a good idea because it'll leave the tank without filtration. But running the pump at about 25-50% at first sounds like a good idea.

Nate

 

[~Flighty~]

How hard would it be to partition off the return and pump in the sump so not all of hte sump water is circulating at once? Like stick them both in a bucket or use a temporary partition or something.

 

[NateHanson]

Again, I'd want the skimmer and heater in that loop too, so the tank isn't without filtration. The return pump is external, so I couldn't put it in a bucket, but I could certainly keep the fuge section turned off, so that only about 30 gallons circulate at first, then slowly bring on the 15-20 gallons in the fuge by cracking the valve that lets water into the fuge.

 

[Scuba_Dave]

On my 125g w/30g sump I added a 75g fuge/frag (about 60g water). I just let it run for a few days. Then I added it into the system, no problems

When I initially started up the sump I did the same thing - the main tank had only been running for about 2-3 weeks.