I'm ready to setup my sump, now that my protein skimmer is in. I wanted to run the idea by you to make sure it's not going to cause me any problems.
I want to setup my sump and get it stabilized before I start construction of the tank. I have a 50 gallon tank that just barely fits in my cabinet that I built. I'm going to section it off so the first section where the overflow box drops water into it has biowheels. The next and largest section will contain my critters (live sand and so on). The last section will be for the return pump and the protein skimmer.
The protein skimmer I bought is a TurboFlotor 1000. I know, it's the not the best, but it's a start. After I finish absorbing the cost of this project, it will be replaced with a better one. The TurboFlotor calls for the overflow box to drop directly into the skimmer, but I'm not real comfortable with that. What if the skimmer backs up? I'm thinking I'll gravity feed the tank water through the overflow box, into the bioballs. The water will overflow the bioballs into live area of the sump, then overflow to the skimmer and return pump.
I'll use a Rio 2100 pump in the bioballs area to pump water to the protein skimmer and the protein skimmer will dump the water into the same section it sits in. The pump in the same section will then push water back up to the tank.
The overflow box will be a long box in the center of the tank with fingers at the top for the water to drop down into. I'll also return the water, with flexible returns, plummed through the overflow box. I'll then use submersible jets in the tank to force water movement.
I'm worried that I'll pump too much water back to the tank and sump will go dry. I'm not worried that the tank will put too much into the sump, since the water level will only be an inch or so above the bottom of the finger inlets on the overflow.
What do you think?
I want to setup my sump and get it stabilized before I start construction of the tank. I have a 50 gallon tank that just barely fits in my cabinet that I built. I'm going to section it off so the first section where the overflow box drops water into it has biowheels. The next and largest section will contain my critters (live sand and so on). The last section will be for the return pump and the protein skimmer.
The protein skimmer I bought is a TurboFlotor 1000. I know, it's the not the best, but it's a start. After I finish absorbing the cost of this project, it will be replaced with a better one. The TurboFlotor calls for the overflow box to drop directly into the skimmer, but I'm not real comfortable with that. What if the skimmer backs up? I'm thinking I'll gravity feed the tank water through the overflow box, into the bioballs. The water will overflow the bioballs into live area of the sump, then overflow to the skimmer and return pump.
I'll use a Rio 2100 pump in the bioballs area to pump water to the protein skimmer and the protein skimmer will dump the water into the same section it sits in. The pump in the same section will then push water back up to the tank.
The overflow box will be a long box in the center of the tank with fingers at the top for the water to drop down into. I'll also return the water, with flexible returns, plummed through the overflow box. I'll then use submersible jets in the tank to force water movement.
I'm worried that I'll pump too much water back to the tank and sump will go dry. I'm not worried that the tank will put too much into the sump, since the water level will only be an inch or so above the bottom of the finger inlets on the overflow.
What do you think?
