Sump design thoughts?

[irie1]

I'm in the process of designing a sump for a 135 build I'm starting. I've got a 55 gallon acrylic predrilled with 4 bulkhead fittings. 2 1 inch in the middle and 2 .5 inch on the far ends. Here's the layout so far...

Any thoughts on this design? I'll be putting the heaters and tubes from my Calcium and Phosphate reactors into the sump. Any plusses and minuses of this design? I'd like to figure out the problems before it's too late to change them!

 

[mr_X]

what will be the lowest point of your setup? i think you might have problems with maintaining an optimum water level unless the 2 sumps are on the same level.

 

[cindre2000]

Right now it looks like you have 3 sumps. Two in the 55 and one more. The water level in 55 will be at two heights unless you work on balancing the flow. The chiller sump will not work unless the flow into the chiller is EXACTLY the same as the flow back into the display.

I would rearrange it so you only have two sumps. Use the 'chiller' sump as a refugium and have it connected to the 55 gallon sump, below water level, to allow the water levels to be the same. Have the chiller return its water into the sump or directly into the display. Move the skimmer back into the original refugium section and get rid of the middle partition and use that area of misc. equipment.

 

[Anonymous]

I think it looks great! Strong work!

But, if the return to the main display is in the middle, it seems like the chilled water will only be on the left side? Will the chiller return to the right side of the sump?

Where it says "from sump", do you mean "from tank"?

 

[Capslock]

Of course, its really what he says but based on the diagram the "From Sump" that you are confused about I guesstimate really means "From Chiller"?

edit: you know what, I am confusing myself; i will just shutup

 

[Anonymous]

I think it looks great! Strong work!

But, if the return to the main display is in the middle, it seems like the chilled water will only be on the left side? Will the chiller return to the right side of the sump?

Where it says "from sump", do you mean "from tank"?

In the center you'll see "From display tank," so the drain pipe goes directly into the skimmer department. The water will be chilled before returning to the display.

 

[irie1]

Here, let me better explain the flow...

Just so you know...all of this is in a different room than the display. So I will have piping from the display down and over to this setup entering the larger diameter bulkhead connection (1" I think) in the middle ("From Tank"). It will drop into a sock for mechanical filtration and into the first chamber with the skimmer. The skimmer skims and the outlet will drop into the chamber to the left of it and pass over some rock rubble. A pump will pump it up and out of the 1/2 inch bulkhead and down to the chiller. The chiller will chill it and then dump it over to the small Sump. In this area will be the heaters and whatever tubes from various reactors (Calcium/Phosphate, etc.). Then the same size pump (and tubing) will pump it up and out back into the Refugium section. From here it will pass through some baffles (bubble reduction) and then back into the main display via a strong pump with a valve on the outlet ("Return"). I only split up the rock and refugium section because of where the 1" bulkheads were vs. where the smaller bulkheads. I wanted more flow to and from the display vs. to and from the smaller sump on the bottom.

Here's some pics that'll show you what I mean...

 

[irie1]

Hmmm...I just thought of something...If I have more water coming to and from the tank than I have moving down and around the sump...I will need some way of getting the excess over to the return side. With this design it would just build up until it went back over the top of the wall from Skimmer to Return. That's no good...

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...I just thought of something...If I have more water coming to and from the tank than I have moving down and around the sump...I will need some way of getting the excess over to the return side. With this design it would just build up until it went back over the top of the wall from Skimmer to Return. That's no good...

that's what Mr X meant from his post

what will be the lowest point of your setup? i think you might have problems with maintaining an optimum water level unless the 2 sumps are on the same level.

 

[irie1]

Not sure I follow you Market...If anything, having the other stuff below it would make it drain better from an overflowing input. Not sure how having it on the same level would help?? Keep in mind all of this is slightly below the display...the room this will be in is adjoining and about 3 steps down.

 

[irie1]

I'm guessing I'll probably need some sort of T from the pump down into the lower sump that will feed the return section as well. I'll have to make the tubing larger before the T and get a stronger pump to keep up with the incoming flow. I'll probably have to use valves to dial in the correct flow. Might be an adventure in trying to get it just right though!

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure I follow you Market...If anything, having the other stuff below it would make it drain better from an overflowing input. Not sure how having it on the same level would help?? Keep in mind all of this is slightly below the display...the room this will be in is adjoining and about 3 steps down.

He was referring to the 2 sumps that you have. Are they going to be on the same level, or is one sump going to be stacked on top of the other? I don't know how that works so I'll have to wait for an answer as well.

 

[irie1]

Ok...I have a better idea...I bet I could T off of the main input from the Display and over into the Refugium section. I'd probably need to put a valve on it for fine tuning. But then the Refugium could also get unpumped water for pod propagation. That sounds better...no?

 

[irie1]

Ya, I would definitely have one on top of the other. As you can see from the pics...I'm foolishly driven by the limitations of this tank I bought off some dude. So I'm basically putting one inside the stand of the other...

 

[youareafever]

nice, but wont that chiller need ventalation?

 

[irie1]

Ya good point, I don't know if you can tell or not...But I took the left door off and there's about 18 inches clearance to the wall in the back. The recommendation is 24 inches...but close enough! 8)

 

[irie1]

Here's a different layout for the same equipment. Which design do you think would be better?

This one is simpler and hopefully has less of a chance for things to go wrong...