Sump/Water Resevoir

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Mashpotatoes74402

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 10, 2012
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339
I've got three tanks 75 gallon display
And empty ten gallon
And an empty 5 gallon
I wanna use the ten as a sump/Refugium for my shrimp Put the heater and filter media stuff down below in there. Then use the five gallon as a reservoir to top off the system when is goes below a certain level. I'm worried about this drain/ flood thing I've read about with sump tanks. I rent so that's not acceptable. Any good links or advice would be awesome. Totally up for some DIY stuff as well.
 
Installing a hang on back overflow box and an appropriately sized return pump is a pretty fool proof way to set it up if you take some precautions. You just have to make sure you run the sump at a level where if the power goes out, whatever drains from the overflow will fit in the sump.
 
Another flood prevention necessity is to make sure there is a small hole in the return tube near the water level. This prevents the return tube from acting like a siphon during a power outage.
 
I just set up an sump with an overflow a few days ago for my freshwater tank and am very happy with it so far.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e1140...tem=380426849329&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:1123

There's the link to the over and pump set up I bought. I also bout some filter floss to use as media and my water is very clean. The only sound is a little bit of water flowing but it's bot bad at all compared the annoying noises my HOB Emperors were making.

I spent an extra $10 on PVC hardware to quiet the over flow and not get the flushing toilet noise.

Heres some pictures. I'm still in the process of installing baffles in the sump. Sorry about the quality of the photos I'll be cleaning the tank later today and try to get better ones.
 

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Awesome thanx. Keep me updated please. I'm looking for a non drilled over flow as well. You think I can use my second magnum 350 filter for the return pump ? Or should I use something slower???
 
I'm kinda worried that if I put all my filtration into the sump I'll lose the water flow across my main tank
 
Here's some pictures of tue water movement. In 2 days it moved 1 1/2 inches of sand just from deflecting off the glass. The flyer that my sump pump came with said it put out 600gph at 4 feet so theres a lot of water movement the fish have to fight the current just to stay in one spot where the water return is.

And the is a non drill over flow with double siphon. It won't lose siphon in power outage and restarts when turned back on. I spent 4 hours messing with it just to make sure.

I don't want to break down my over flow again but I'll draw up how I silenced it.
 

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Heres a ruff drawing of the piping inside the overflow box. All this is 1 inch piping. The pipe on the right is the primary it'll take water from further down but above the siphons intake so that the Siphon will still hold water. It has a cap with a tiny hole drilled in it to keep the flushing toilet noise from happening.

The left side is a secondary over flow. Its different due to the box being to small to hold two pipes like the primary. It didn't have a cap because it dosent make much noise also incase the primary clogs for whatever reason it will spill over. Fail safe.

If this dosent make sense I got my idea from googling silence my overflow box and found plans similar to this.
 

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Hahahaa I tried being cheap and just using my canisters to pump into and out of the sump.
That loop DID NOT WORK lol. Almost had a ton of water on the floor. ...... Lesson learned
 
In my opinion my overflow and pump set up that I linked above is worth ever penny. It's quiet, absolutely no difference between intake and output and it's fail safe from overflowing. If you have the extra tank for sump it's worth it my water is crystal clear and fish a very happy.
 
I've got beautiful water ... That's not the problem.
I've got plenty of filtration mech/bio/Chem.
I just hate having multiple intake/out + heater + thermometer in the display tank. My reason are purely aesthetic. I just want a Pretty tank
 
Since I put my over flow in the only things in my tank are the overflow box and return spout. The heaters went to the sump and the thermometer went inside the overflow box. Looks real clean and organized inside the DT.

The sump I got to replace my filters bc I hated all the noise. Idk if you would still use your current filters. HOB I don't think will work in a sump due to the water level being lower in the sump. If you have a canister filter you could still run that inside the sump.
 
How would you compare your average canister vs the overflow siphon noise.? I keep hearing ppl say there's a flushing noise. Thats not cool. I don't wanna trade a sloppy tank for a toilet noise tank
 
And am I correct in thinking the gph from the overflow and return pump need to be the same/similar or what? How should that situation be set up?
 
Of course you can't get any quieter than a canister filter it's completely sealed and there's no place for noise. My over flow with the $10 modification is very quiet but there is the sound of water moving.

If It came down to it I probably would not be able to sleep with it but to watch tv or chat with people it's no problem.

Maybe someone with more experience with an overflow has a modification that can help but I have not seen one yet.
 
The gph need to be exact that why I went with the kit. It works perfectly in keeping in and out rates the same
 
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