Sump on a Budget...

[Brian5000]

I have a 29 gallon tank that I've been running for a over 5 months now (wow, how time flies), and right now, I'm just using hanging equipment. I think I'd like to add a sump if only to move some of the equipment out sight and increase the water volume a bit and maybe improve circulation a bit with the return. I really don't need it bad enough to afford a prebuilt, designated sump, but in reading about baffles and bubble traps while researching this, I really not a big DIY guy (no equipment, room or time anymore). What's necessary for working sump? At the risk of sounding completely stupid, I'm kinda hoping to get away with a 10 gallon walmart tank, submersible pump, vinyl tubing and a siphon overflow of some kind (and possibly a float switch given the overflow).
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Mercedes Fintail

 

[LA-Lawman]

a ten gallon tank would do. but you would be better off using a good quality rubbermaid tote of some kind. a 10 gallon tank is only gonna afford you about 6-8 gallons of water. you still have to allow enough drain for power outages.

You could get a 20-40gallon tote. stack them in each other for stability. and add as much as 20-30 gallons of additional water volume. and get rid of some cluttery equip.

just me 2 cents.

 

[benthos]

Sounds good to me all except the siphon overflows. the possibility the siphon broke and you overflowed your main tank...I wouldnt do it but thats just me. You can still drill your tank in both upper back corners giving you two 1" bulkhead drains if you empty half your tank but that gets tricky also. As for the sump/fuge... I use a AGA 10g for a 40g main tank thats drilled. I have the drain lines going into a half milk jug inside the fuge that overflows to the macro area then a tank divider (bought at most any LFS, plastic sheet with tiny holes) that seperates the macro area and the return pump. 3/4" vinyl tubing on the return line to a SCWD and U tubes with flared nozzles back to the main tank. Ive got a 3/4" vinyl tubing plumbed closed loop as well with the same SCWD setup. It looks pretty good in the main tank with 4 flared nozzle returns and the pvc elbow drains, thats all you see while the float valve, heater, etc...all in the fuge. You will be able to hide some of your equipment but still have to look at the overflow boxes for the siphons...

 

[ChrisRD]

Brian, your plan sounds fine to me.

I prefer a drilled tank too, but if you need to use the syphon overflow you might want to put a divider in your sump. Use it to section off a "pump chamber" at the end of the sump were the return pump (in this case powerhead) will sit.

In the event of syphon disruption with your hang-on overflow, the water level in the sump will start to drop as water is still being pumped to the main tank but no longer draining to sump. Once the water level drops below that last divider, it's only got that small amount of water left in that last chamber that can actually be pumped up to the main tank. If you've sized the chamber correctly your return pump will run dry before your main tank can overflow.

FWIW, I setup all my tanks this way - even with a drilled tank. I'd rather deal with a burned-out return pump than a flood.

Having a float switch setup to kill the return pump in the event that this happens is not a bad idea either. It'll save you from burning up the pump as well. Some people just rely on the float switch to kill the return pump in the event of a possible flood (ie. no "pump chamber" setup) but I'm not a real big believer in relying on float switches...

HTH

 

[hillbilly]

If you must use a hang on overflow, I would use one that has siphon tubes instead of the CPR type boxes that rely on bogus pumps and such, these are bound to fail at some point. The ones with siphon tubes are pretty reliable.

 

[Brian5000]

For now, I think the hang on overflow would be easier. That's interesting about the CPR thing, I was considering that.

I called the local glass shop and to cut the pieces for a sectioned sump (with intake, refugium, and skimmer areas) would cost a grand total of $5 plus silicone, so now my thought is to do something similar to a design from Melev's Reef (www.melevsreef.com) with my 10 gallon tank. The guy said he would rather use plexiglass for a smaller peice. Just to make sure, is plexiglass safe? Also, how high do you think my divider should be in between the sections?
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Dilaudid Rehab Forum

 

[ChrisRD]

Plexiglass is safe to use for your dividers. Looks like you're on the right track. Couple of comments...

Some people prefer the under/over/under baffle arrangement, but many also do what you have shown... ...however, I'm assuming from the diagram that the return pump would in the skimmer chamber, correct?

If that's the case, the baffles will only help with bubbles coming from the main tank drain line. Any bubbles generated by the skimmer (generally the bigger problem of the two) would easily make it into the return pump and back into the main aquarium.

Also, the last chamber is the one where the water level may fluctuate due to evaporation. This could cause some variation in skimmer performance, depending on the skimmer and how much fluctuation your top-off system allows with the water level.

I prefer to have the skimmer in the first or a middle section where water level will always be consistent. Personally in such a compact setup I would skip the fuge idea, eliminate the inlet box and just have the skimmer on the inlet side and the return pump on the other (JMO). That way any bubbles generated from the main tank drain inlet and the skimmer will be isolated from the return pump via the baffles.

As to how high the dividers should be, for me that would be somewhat dependent on the skimmer of choice (ie. how high you need the water level for the skimmer. Also, it will depend on how much the water level can drrop in the main tank when power is off. Be sure to leave enough room so the sump doesn't overflow.

 

[HClH2OFish]

If you're getting pieces cut, here's an image of some PVC pieces that a guy is selling on eBay...give you an idea of what to get and how to place them...


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4333234564&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

 

[Brian5000]

Actually, I like the inlet idea to put some filter sponges and carbon and have that as my spot for mechanical filteration. OK idea?
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Mercedes Benz CLK GTR

 

[ChrisRD]

Yeah, that should work fine.

 

[AK_Dude]

On the topic of building sumps, I was wondering about a rather bizarre idea, and was curious if there was some reason not to do this.

When I build the sump in my tank, it will have to be underneath my display tank. Unfortunately, in the event of a power outage, that means I will need to have some mechanical, automatic means for shutting off the flow of water to prevent my 85 gallon display tank from draining into an almost full 10-20 gallon sump...and the living room floor. I was thinking that, rather than engineer such a valve, couldn't I just use a (new) float valve for a toilet? It's already designed to shut off when the water reaches a certain level, they handle much higher pressure than my aquarium will generate, they are adjustable, and quite honestly, I doubt I could design something any better.

Is there anything that would make this a bad idea?

Thanks!

 

[danmhippo]

Using toilet float valve is not recommended in fuge. Snails may crawl through it and if one managed to get "stucked", your float valve would not have worked in the event of power failure.

A better thing to do is to drill a hole in the siphon tube just an inch below the normal water level. The hole acts as siphon break in the event of power failure.

 

[narny]

Let me get this straight.... "Drill the tank"????
I think i'll go lie down now.

 

[AK_Dude]

A better thing to do is to drill a hole in the siphon tube just an inch below the normal water level. The hole acts as siphon break in the event of power failure.

Ahhh....simple. I like it.