smithman56063
05-01-2013, 02:41 PM
This is my first time posting on Simply Discus! But my question is, we have a "wall" of tanks, (2-75g, 3-20g, 1-29g), all plumed to feed into the sump below the 2'x8' stand. The "sump" has a pond liner and when filled it is about 12" deep. So when we do a water change it takes around 120 gallons to fill the sump. All the tanks flow down to it and above the sump are spray bars that trickle down onto the filter material. The filter matieral is raised up via a PVC stand. We have 2 layers of floss or foam, whatever you'd like to call it. The first layer is 4" thick and completly submerged in water at all times with the exception of 30 seconds for the water change. Also resting on top of that is a 2" layer of material that is out of the water at all thimes. This would create both types of bacteria to grow. The filter material is solid throughout the entire sump so water is forced to go through it. So getting back to my main question, the system has been running for 6-8 weeks now with 25-30 fish throughout all the tanks. We did try to seed the filter material a little from other tanks we have throughout the house. But, we are reading our Ammonia at 1.0 and it continues to rise slowly up to 2.0 everyother day. We do a 30% water change (amount in the sump) everyother day to keep ammonia in check. But with 14ish sq ft of filter material and 1 fish per 25 total gallons of water, we are baffled as to why after 2 months, the filter has not kicked in yet? We do clean the bare bottoms everyother day. I should mention Nitrites and Nitrates are both reading 0.0. We have several large show tanks with 55 gallon and 75 gallon sumps that work in the similar way, and they are very healthy and great water conditions. So I am looking for a little advice from the great people here on Simply Discus as to what am I doing wrong?!?! Fyi I have always came to this site for help and many of you have been inspirations to our current designs, this is just the first time I've posted. Thanks guys in advance!