Building a sump/refugium

[Grizz]

Put a sponge or poly-fill in the back of your overflow or both lol it will calm the splash just make sure the poly-fill cant clog the drain i used a filter bag to hold mine

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Yep I think I got something in mind that will just work perfectly thx.

 

[RickkyBobby]

Hey steve.. your inbox is full.. Cant send you any message's till ya clear it out.. just have a few questions for ya..

 

[h8z2luze]

This is an awesome thread! Sump looks good! What type of glue did you use for the PVC? How did you glue in the eggcrate? Also are you using a filter sock on your overflow? Just curious.

 

[Sniperhank]

In terms of filter socks...I wish I had come up with this idea on my own...they are expensive and a pain to clean. But I am using panty hose instead. I have a pair rubber banded to the intake line of my sump. They also are great at stopping splashing from skimmers and such, so I have one on my skimmer and the return pipe from my sump as well. Works great.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

I used 1/4" glass for the baffles and aqueon silicon. Expensive but the rite stuff. See silicon won't permanatly adhire to to acrylic and could leak down the road. I used loctite superglue on the egg create.

I have finished pics coming soon of which I added a block of sponge filter bc I was still getting some micro bubbles in the return and also provides a last minute filtration.

I stayed away from filter socks everyone I talked to said the same thing that they are a pain

 

[Steve silbernagel]

I also had to add a sponge in my overflow bc it was so loud

 

[Sniperhank]

That looks great. I wish I had that kind of flow out of my overflow, but if I turn the return pump up any higher it drains the sump.

One thing I've done to reduce noise/splashing of water is to add panty hose on my return line and skimmer. I did the same for the intake into my sump to act as a filter sock. Won't have to worry about cleaning the filter sock...they are cheap and I'll just throw them away rather than trying to clean them.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Might give that a shot. My system is in red alert as there will be a hurricane on my door step Monday. Can't wait to loose power for three days

 

[h8z2luze]

So your skimmer isn't running over to the return anymore?

 

[Steve silbernagel]

No it was creating too many bubbles

 

[RickkyBobby]

[FONT=&quot]hi steve ,, i just had a couple questions about your 20g sump build..Im doing mine the same way (Skimmer > Fuge > Return) but i had questions on your plumbing..It looks like you have your drain from your overflow going into where your skimmer is, then you have the output of the skimmer going to the return section of the sump? I just cant tell from the pictures..This is what i was going to do with mine..[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]My Skimmer will be in where the drain empties into the sump..
what do you think? I think this is basically what you have but i just wanted to ask you...

also..how did your glass fit when it was cut at 11 7/8 was it tight or loose (im looking for width size not thickness of the glass) or was that a good width to cut it.. i have the same size tank.. thanks for your help .. let me know you thought on this .. thanks
i tried to message you but your box is full
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[Steve silbernagel]

Ya I can't erase them from my phone. I have my skimmer in the intake chamber which shares with the intake of the over flow. I originally wanted my clean water from my skimmer to dump in the return but it created to many micro bubbles which returned into my DT so I now have it dumping into the intake chamber but it's directed rite next to the baffle. I did some research there is not much gain doin it the other way.

That pic shows the return pump coming back over through the system for a second time. I've heard that's ok if u have too much return into your tank but I just used ball valves on my intake and return lines also put u check valve in the return line just before the return spouts.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Sump is finally complete. Also cleaned out my message box

 

[h8z2luze]

How often do you clean the sponge??

Also why put a check valve on the return? Just curious. I'm trying to learn

 

[Steve silbernagel]

U don't want to clean the sponge it's full of pods. The check valve will stop your DT from draining if there is a power loss. Before I had one I lost power while I was at work luckily my sump was low otherwise it would have flooded

 

[h8z2luze]

Won't the sponge get full of waste and cause nitrates to rise?

 

[Steve silbernagel]

I'm sure it could and I'm hoping that doesn't happen for awhile bc I'm trying to build up my pods population. Now more frequent water changes might be needed but that all goes hand in hand. I've had it wedged in there with egg create for the last two weeks and when I took it ok it was clean but was loaded with pods so I just laid it in sump sump till the new silicon dried. Works good I think in many ways

 

[h8z2luze]

Ya my roomates sump is setup the same way. He cleaned it after months and it was do nasty lol but his nitrates have gone down since then.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Ya its diffenatally something u have to monitor but I'll bet his pod level is up