Sump above aquarium

[Al Hobby]

I am planning on placing a sump to the side of my 60 gal Oceanic. The sump will be a few inches higher that the aquarium. I do not want to drill the tank or have a hang-on overflow. Plans are for a pump to pull water out of the aquarium and into the sump. Water will then flow through bulkhead fittings in the sump and into the aquarium. The pump will be placed about 18 inches below the aquarium level, this should keep enough water in the pipes to restart the pump after a power failure.

Does anyone have experience with this type of setup? What pump would be the best? Any recomendations would be helpful.

 

[Mogo]

You have to be very careful that under a worst case scenario that the sump water cannot syphon back into the tank causing overflow. This is partly why most sumps are located below the tank. Make gravity your friend, not your enemy. I'm not sure whether I like the idea. You need to eliminate the word "should" in your plans. FWIW.

 

[Tremelle]

Your line to the sump wouldn't need to be primed from the pump. When the pump is turned on it will draw in the water initially and push it through the line.

As far as the syphon effect on the tank, on your return line to the tank from the sump, you can drill a small hole in the line just above the water line and the will break the syphon in a lost of power.

 

[Anonymous]

So you are going to have an intake in the tank, go over the back to a pump below tank level, and pump up to the sump where the water will overflow through a drilled bulkhead back to the tank right?

Main problem is you won't have a consistent water level in the tank- it will vary with evaporation. I had a somewhat similar setup- overflow to a sump and then pump up to a refugia which overflowed to the tank. That worked fine. How come you don't want to drill the tank? It solves a lot of problems.

If you do the raised sump thing make sure you put strainers on all bulkheads because 1 snail will put all your water on the floor.

 

[Al Hobby]

To prevent back flow into the tank during a power failure I will keep the pipe going into the sump just above the water level. If that is too loud then I will put a partition in the sump that will only alow a very small amount of water to siphon back into the tank.

 

[Al Hobby]

Thanks for the imput.

I did not think about the tank level changing due to evaporation. Currently I use a drip system to replace evaporated water, but will soon change to a float swich in the sump. That would not work if the sump was above the aquarium.

Perhaps it would be easier to have the LFS drill the tank. They can't guarantee not to break it. Maybe it is worth the risk.

 

[Anonymous]

Nobody guarantees they won't break the tank, but I've had lots of holes drilled with no problems. I think its worth the risk.

For small tanks I just go to a local glass place that does it.