Hey Guys,
My tank is 36 x 18 x 20 inches, with overflow box and a return box on both left and right corners. That's about 4 x 4 inches on each side. Single 1 inch overflow pipe.
As for my sump, it's: 29.5 x 14.5 x 15 inches. This is currently a 4 compartment sump.
first compartment: Overflow in - 5.5 x 14.5 x 9 inches. 9 inches is the baffle height.
second compartment: skimmer (plan to remove this section and merge first compartment with this to give better foot print for BM curve 5 skimmer) - 6.5 x 14.5 x 7.5. 7.5 inches is the baffle height.
third compartment: plan to keep chaeto - 6.5 x 14.5 x 7.5 inches. 7.5 inches is the baffle height
fourth compartment: 6 x 14.5 x 7.5 inches. 7.5 inches is the water height, 5 inches is the actual baffle water height.
So my question is, one of the current compartment is about 6.5 x 14.5 x 7.5 inches of water, and i was planning to keep chaeto in this compartment. That's about 3.06 gallon of water.
Will this compartment be enough to keep chaeto to be able to keep my phosphate and nitrate low, or to assist in nutrient export. Or is the compartment too small to do anything.
I do have plan to reconfigure the sump into a 3 compartment or 2 compartment sump, depending on which would be easier and best possible setup.
I plan to keep mostly LPS and ZOA and maybe a few simple and easy SPS (birdnest, monti)
I cant take out the sump to work on it, so it must be a simple in place reconfigure if im going that route.
Or will it be better to skip the chaeto and use biosphere, rowaphos, carbon in reactors? or even go the polyp lab reef-resh system?
Need suggestions, before i start wetting the tank around mid April.