sump big enough?

[runtowin777]

I am starting a 75 gal tank and i was wondering if a 25gal sump would be big enough to do the job? If not how big should it be? I am only having live rock and fish in my main tank and one slab of live rock in my sump for now. Also can I reuse someones live sand in my tank or is that not such a good idea?

 

[tdgates10]

The more water volume the better. If that's all the room that you have then I think that would be fine for a sump, but if you have more room, larger wouldn't hurt. Are you going to be making into a refugium also?

My thought on sand is that in my tank I love for my sand to stay sparkling white. If you use someone else's sand then your not sure what's coming in it...lots of waste, etc. IMO I would spend the extra cash and get nice new sand. But if your trying to budget a lot then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[runtowin777]

I would rather budget my sand than my rock, fish, skimmer etc. Sand is at the bottom of my list. i actually almost went with a bare bottom setup. I eventually want to go into coral and inverts buts that a few months away still.

 

[tdgates10]

If that's what you want to do then I don't see a problem.

 

[Krish]

Yeah, the sump should be fine. As suggested, the bigger the better as it will provide your system with more stabilty seeing you'd have more volume of water, but once the sump is big enough to hold your skimmer and so forth, then it's big enough IMO. About adding some live rock in there it may not be worth the extra work. The rock that you can hold in your main tank alone is usually more than enough to support your system. The space the rock would take up in the sump would be better off used for something else like maybe a maco algae etc. Just my 2 cents

 

[keithinspokane]

i dont think adding sand from someone elses sand to the tank would be a big deal,just as long as its not a lot at any one time....ive added a pound here and there to my tank with no problems.if the sand is nice and mature,there shouldnt be too much waste in it as the fauna has been feasting on it.(from my experience)

 

[dlove18]

I used someone elses sand when I set up my tank. I think it was a mistake. I didn't rinse it or anything. later, I moved the tank and disturbed the sand and had a green water bloom that lasted for 8 weeks. I wouldn't do it again. I probably saved $80 or so. I lost 2 SPS frags in the bloom. I ended up buying a $90 diatom filter to clear it up.

it would prolly be ok if you rinsed it really good.