# Planted tank with Sump Issues.



## goalieman59 (Aug 1, 2008)

I have a 120tall tank with a sump, that is gassing off too much of the CO2 that i am injecting and I am having a algae outbreak. I was wondering what i could do to stop the gassing off. Or could I take the sump out and hook a fx5 to the output and input from the tank? Would this work? Will this be enough water exchange? Any other ideas?


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## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

I had same problem with sump until I got a canister filter


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## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

Yes, FX5 External Canister Filter will work


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## nfrank (Jan 29, 2005)

i have sumps on all my large tanks (90,90,120). There are ways to enjoy the benefits and reduce problems with outgasing.
* put a (glass) cover on sump. seal all the ways the co2 can escape
* increase CO2 input to compensate. I use needle wheel which sprays a CO2 mist. very efficient. i may also increase the injection rate to get the desired tank level. There may be less CO2 in sump than tank
*put cover over the overflow section.
* replace sincle durso with a 2 down tube config which allows durso to be the backup drain. Main drain is valved down to reduce flow and eliminate air. (I havent yet implemented this part).

-Neil


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## goalieman59 (Aug 1, 2008)

nfrank said:


> i have sumps on all my large tanks (90,90,120). There are ways to enjoy the benefits and reduce problems with outgasing.
> * put a (glass) cover on sump. seal all the ways the co2 can escape
> * increase CO2 input to compensate. I use needle wheel which sprays a CO2 mist. very efficient. i may also increase the injection rate to get the desired tank level. There may be less CO2 in sump than tank
> *put cover over the overflow section.
> ...


I was told that i need to raise my durso to raise the water level in the overflow so I have no trickle. Also I am already using a glass diffuser into the tank for the CO2. And If I get a glass top how should I seal it down? I was going to get a piece of solid glass made for the top of the sump.


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## nfrank (Jan 29, 2005)

raising durso to reduce amount of water fall is something i should have added to my list.

For my sump, i have a standard hinged lid, which allows cutouts in the plastic strip for all the plumbing. If you have ceramic disc, try raising bubble rate. Try to monitor what is going on with pH.

Oh, another thing is that i dont have a wet-dry type of sump.... more of a refugium type. My down tube does not trickle over bioballs... it goes into the sump under water. I think a trickle filter will outgas all the CO2.


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## armedbiggiet (May 6, 2006)

I have the same problem with one of my client long time ago and I end up replacing the filter to a canister to make my life easier. The algae out brake was cause by the imbalance CO2 which keep escaped out of the water even I pumped 4 bubbles per sec and teh PH still high.


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## geeks_15 (Dec 9, 2006)

It's hard to know what the cause is without more info. Try to minimize water surface disturbance. Where you inject CO2 in the system may make a difference (in flow, out flow, in the sump, in the tank). I am running a 75 with a sump. I inject CO2 with an inline diffuser that is in the plumbing which goes from the sump to the tank. I use a pH moniter to regulate the CO2 and I've had no problems keeping the CO2 levels I want and the pH pretty low (7.0 at night when the CO2 is off, down to 6.2 - 6.3 during the lighting period). You can check out my journal (linked below) to see my setup.


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## goalieman59 (Aug 1, 2008)

geeks_15 said:


> It's hard to know what the cause is without more info. Try to minimize water surface disturbance. Where you inject CO2 in the system may make a difference (in flow, out flow, in the sump, in the tank). I am running a 75 with a sump. I inject CO2 with an inline diffuser that is in the plumbing which goes from the sump to the tank. I use a pH moniter to regulate the CO2 and I've had no problems keeping the CO2 levels I want and the pH pretty low (7.0 at night when the CO2 is off, down to 6.2 - 6.3 during the lighting period). You can check out my journal (linked below) to see my setup.


I am injecting the co2 right below the return line so the co2 bubbles are being moved all of the tank when the start moving toward the top of the tank. I will be rasing the stand pipe this week and then we will see what is going on with the co2. Is there any way to stop the loss through the trickle area?


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## goalieman59 (Aug 1, 2008)

ok so here is the idea to redo the sump what do you guys and gals think. Do you think this will help with the gas off issues. I think this will help with the trickling of the water.


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