Sump project

[LandLocked]

Got a 60g "Homeland" set at petsmart. The stand is ehh, took it apart and reassembled with liquid nails, still ehh but better, will be replace at some point. I have an Eheim 2215 on it now but for a bunch of reasons I like the idea of a sump. Not sure if you guys know what the homeland set is but the stand doesn't have hardly any room inside the closed area, around 48" x 12"ish tall that is split by in half by the door/center support. I had to cut out a relieve area to allow the 2215 to fit inside the stand, kinda slick if I say so myself. So the biggest sump tank I can find to fit is a 6.6g bookshelf acrylic tank, just fits too. I have a pvc overflow that I have been fine tuning and it's all glued and ready.
1.) I'm still hunting info on a good return pump. For testing I am using a maxi-jet 1200, I took the impeller apart a wrapped teflon tape around the plastic part until it was built up enough to hold the blades part solid and that took the noise way way down on the maxi jet, why is it loose anyway. Thinking maybe a cool dc pump but number one is that it needs to be dead silent, no hum or noise at all maybe 500gph max, it's only a 60g FW tank.
2.) What should be used in the sump for bio, is ceramic or plastic bio balls better or something else altogether. It's sorta small for plants I figured (6.6g) but I'm here to to listen.
3.) Is this sump even big enough to do any good or am I just figuring out the overflow at the moment.

Edit
Added picture of my non drilled overflow. Testing it with buckets and pumps it flows probably 3x more then I need or want for this tank.
The clear 3/8 ice maker line runs to a 1/4 RO line, it is held in place as it controls at what water level the system goes full siphon. Then line goes thru a quick connect fitting then I made a Venturi type thing I made with a couple of up sizing tubes, when the water level gets that high (enough to be sucked up the line) air in the center of the drop tube is replaced with water creating a ~12" solid full 1"pvc that is trying to fall away and it "sucks on the 1/2" pvc "U"s. The 2 pumps I have now can't keep up with the suction in emergency siphon so the air line does a chirping thing, it actually makes it a self regulating siphon. Not sure if he made it or just the first place I seen it but I took the airline idea from BeanAnimal and much thanks to him for that, my little tube goes from ~150gpm give or take to ~300gpm and still has room for more all because of the full siphon thing. The long 1" compression coupling, totally not needed I screwed up and forgot the ring part of the threaded coupling so I had to cut the pipe apart to get the ring on and the compression fixed the cut.



I also set my intake inside a 2" pvc, I just think it looks a bit cleaner then seeing a "U" inside, plus the falling water is about silent from it sheeting down the wall. I also sanded the edge so it was a nice soft edge to fall over. I plan to paint it up soon.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

1 .) I'm still hunting info on a good return pump. For testing I am using a maxi-jet 1200, I took the impeller apart a wrapped teflon tape around the plastic part until it was built up enough to hold the blades part solid and that took the noise way way down on the maxi jet, why is it loose anyway. Thinking maybe a cool dc pump but number one is that it needs to be dead silent, no hum or noise at all maybe 500gph max, it's only a 60g FW tank.

Look into a mag pump or even some pond pumps will work. I would look into maybe bumping the gph up if it was me. You have to remember the pump will slow way down from the head height.

2.) What should be used in the sump for bio, is ceramic or plastic bio balls better or something else altogether. It's sorta small for plants I figured (6.6g) but I'm here to to listen.

I run bio balls in mine and have found ceramic rings are better in like hob filters.

3.) Is this sump even big enough to do any good or am I just figuring out the overflow at the moment

A 6 gallon tank isn't going to be big enough. It will overflow. You should try to get something along the lines of 30"

 

[LandLocked]

This tank pretty much takes up all the rest of the free space in my stand. Not sure I get why it would ever overflow. I have lowered my DT water level and then only added enough water to fill the sump thru the overflow, even with my overflow dry and tubes empty I should be ok. Again not being a smart a$$, I'm hear to listen and learn from those who know. Right now I only have 2 gallons in the sump, was kinda timid to fill'er and let it run overnight. When I replace the stand it will be built for a sump.
My 500gph was more the ability to flow water at 500gph thru my tank (should have added head to get any real info, less then 3 feet) but I'll be buying more then I need and bleed some off right back in the sump or get something with a speed control, I really like flexibility, may want to run more stuff at some time.
Thanks for the info.

Edit
I have a eheim 2215 on it now, am I better off to keep the redundancy of having it run completely separate or go the lower maintenance and let the 2215 be feed clean water from in the sump return area, I ask because I have to remove everything from the canister to clean the bottom sponge and that gets hit first so it's the most dirty. Or do I ditch the 2215 and go with more sump. I added a modded house filter to prefilter the eheim and be really easy to clean, I used eheim double taps so it just pulls right out, but I'm just not sure.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

This tank pretty much takes up all the rest of the free space in my stand. Not sure I get why it would ever overflow. I have lowered my DT water level and then only added enough water to fill the sump thru the overflow, even with my overflow dry and tubes empty I should be ok. Again not being a smart a$$, I'm hear to listen and learn from those who know. Right now I only have 2 gallons in the sump, was kinda timid to fill'er and let it run overnight. When I replace the stand it will be built for a sump.
My 500gph was more the ability to flow water at 500gph thru my tank (should have added head to get any real info, less then 3 feet) but I'll be buying more then I need and bleed some off right back in the sump or get something with a speed control, I really like flexibility, may want to run more stuff at some time.
Thanks for the info.

Maybe I miss understood

It is only 6 gallons? Can you show some pictures?

Turn it on and let it get going good. Then unplug the pump and let it stop by itself and see if it over flows.

They say the tank below should have enough free space to hold two inches of the surface water from the display tank.

 

[LandLocked]

I got nothing close to that, it's good. Ops
Here are pics. I'm thinking if I fill the sump via the display tank with power off it should not have very much water left should it somehow overflow. New at this so I only THINK I know.

The overflow, it only flows when extra water comes from somewhere (sump)





Left is 6.6 bookshelf tank. Far right eheim 2215. Right centerish house filter.



Relief to fit 2215 view from floor level. Cant see it in normal citation.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

That looks bigger in the stand, maybe you'll be ok. I'd put it threw some test to be sure then call it a day and let her run. I was thinking your using a overflow box what your using may be different. I've never used one of those before.

 

[LandLocked]

I tried to figure inches per gallon or some way to figure levels at power on/off/ and drain plugged with sump emptied via pump but I'm missing something. I'll post dimensions when I can.

 

[LandLocked]

Ok I think I got the inch per gallon figured out. Display tank inside dimensions:
47" long
11.75" front to back
I have 1" of open top now before water overflows the tank onto the floor.
I'm thinking I have right around 2.3 gallon capacity before a stopped drain turns into a problem. If anyone that doesn't have to look up how to wouldn't mind checking my numbers I would be grateful. My plan is to make the return pump intake higher then the the oh crap line in the sump then should a drain get plugged the pump runs dry before my floors get wet. I'd rather replace a pump then the floor and celling below it.
About a pump, something people do to hush a computer fan is buy a really high quality fan that is about 3 times to much then throttle it way back to a useable level resulting in a fan that is almost silent, could water pumps work the same, get a few thousand gph DC pump and slow it way down. For some reason that hum that electric motors create drives me crazy and I'm willing to spend a couple hundred to fix it. The room my tank is in has a flat celling, walls and a hard wood floor so paint drying has an echo hence the need for a dead silent pump. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[LandLocked]

I got a pump ordered and some media to put in the sump, bio bale and xport bio. My plan is to baffle off 4 areas.
1: ) First area is the drain catch area, it will keep the water level where I need it to keep the end of the overflow pvc submerged so I can still induce a siphon on the drain when needed.
2: ) Area 2 will be a sloped ramp coming from the catch area. The ramp should keep water noise low with variable water heights, I hope. This area with have mechanical media.
3: ) This will be the bio area. I think put the bio bale then the xport.
4: ) This is the return pump area. So far I'm just planing it to be a open area to collect water and hold the pump.
Anything I should rethink or totally change. I'm not really in a hurry, canister is keeping everything good now so the sump just has a heater and two pumps right now, it's just circulating water and growing copepods.

 

[LandLocked]

Not really about my sump but kinda. I use RO not DI the only additions I make to the water is one teaspoon per 5g of aquarium salt 60g tank, eco complete substrate, eheim 2215 that was filtering an overstocks 29g for about 3 weeks with stock media setup and a whole house canister before it as a prefilter. Stock 2 op gourami 5 dwarf gourami 6 danio 1 redtailed shark 2 blue crayfish. I used tap water in my first tank, everything was everywhere, I lost a few fish. I tested my tap and it is trash, we have chloramine and nitrate test showed a slight color change so I got a RO filter and now my stock water shows zero everything on a API master test. My question is, on my tank now that had RO from the start the only time I see anything on my liquid test is a wee tiny bit of ammonia, the tank is nearing 4 weeks old, I have not seen any change at all on the nitrite or nitrate. I do a 5g wc every week and top up every other day or so. For a while I was thinking my tank was just doing great, but the more I read it seems like a healthy tank will have nitrate. Is my tank still cycling, I was expecting to see nitrates by now. Everything looks healthy and they eat like pigs.

 

[LandLocked]

I found a danio in my sump again, it happened the first time like 2 days after I installed the pvc overflow so I went to lfs and was bsing with the guy he said they sometimes use gutter guard and they sell it I wrapped it around the pvc overflow intake, it was working for a few day but this morning I see one got thru. I have seen white plastic grid stuff used for crafts, you pull yard or string thru it to make designs, anyone have a clue what I'm talking about or if it's aquarium safe. I actually used a dremel to smooth off all the pipe edges, ya the insides of ALL the pipe, so he probably didn't slam any sharp edges but it can't be good for them.

 

[LandLocked]

Yep you was right, I'm not diggin the sump size, the water drops too fast and thats with no media at all. My plan is to make the center piece between the doors move with a door, I'll brace the top so I'd don't loss any structure and that should allow me something in the range of 39" ~9" and 10" front to back. I'm really just thinking about making a new stand with a huge sump area and use this stand for another tank, it's too small where I need the room.

 

[LandLocked]

Starting to think about drilling an overflow. Using the DC 1320 the 1/2" overflow can take up to setting 3 of 6 but at that point it is in full siphon and that is just too close to the edge, if something even stutters I'm getting water on the floor and before I build a second tube to be the half full overflow I think I should just get started on the right path and start figuring where I want holes. I have also spent enough time "trying" to get my hands down in that tight space, na, I'ma go buy a big stand with one big door then stick the largest sump I can in it, just playing around with the pump today I was ready to start smashin stuff, and it's stupid to tailor all this to a stand and sump size I hate. You guys could have told me till you was sick of it, sometimes I just have to do to know. I should and could build a stand but I think I'll go the easy route and just buy one from a small lfs, they looked to be all hardwood but I was only glancing.
That drilled overflow could be made silent also right, like I messed with this one till it was almost void of sound, no reason I can't get similar performance from any pipe I hope.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Yea I'd start over : )

 

[LandLocked]

My tank had a sticker on the bottom that said tempered. The tank is a 60 gallon from the marineland Heartland set. Any simple way to tell if the side is tempered or should I just rehome the fish and get at it. I have time so I could setup another tank to house the fish while I drill and then play with the drain over a few days then drain it to slide it back into final position. I did most of the drain work on the current setup full of water and about 3 inches from the wall, not this time.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

My tank had a sticker on the bottom that said tempered. The tank is a 60 gallon from the marineland Heartland set. Any simple way to tell if the side is tempered or should I just rehome the fish and get at it. I have time so I could setup another tank to house the fish while I drill and then play with the drain over a few days then drain it to slide it back into final position. I did most of the drain work on the current setup full of water and about 3 inches from the wall, not this time.

Most of the time it's only the bottom. I've never tried drilling, to much of a wuss I guess. I would rather use a box then screw my tank up.