Sump Opinions

[Salttanker]

Alright everyone, I am in no way, shape, or form a sump expert. My imagination is limited. I need you all to take a look at my diagram and let me know if this will work or not. I did this in Visio, so it was limited but I think you will get the idea when you see it.
This system will be running under my 120 gal main.

Be kind now, and don't hurt my feelings..

Mike

 

[RLG2182]

Mike, looks good!

Three things... switch the LR Rubble & skimmer. As well, make the baffle between the LR Rubble and the skimmer higher than the rest of the baffles by at least 2 inches, so you can add more rubble. Also, keep in mind that with your original idea, your water line will be at the red line, not the black one as you drew. So, your heaters will have to be lowered (unless you do what I say... muahaha).

Second... have you determined how much flow you want through your mini fuge? Where it is, it will get 100% flow from the tank. Look at my photo gallery to see my 40 gal sump. You see how the (future) fuge is on the right side, powered by a dedicated ball valve from my main returns? I just read that fuges should have a 5X or so turnover rate, while the main tank should be at 10-20 X depending on if it's reef or not. It would still be fine, just make sure your macro algae would be fine growing with fast currents.

Lastly, make sure to add in a bubble trap right before your pumps. This way, no micro bubbles can get in.

Overall I would just raise the baffles a bit more on the blue lines, just so your pump chamber doesn't empty as water levels drop from evaporation. Good job!

 

[Salttanker]

Thanks RLG2182 for your assistance on this. That's why I sent this over to AA to get the experts involved.

So you are suggesting to put the lr in the first chamber, then the skimmer and pump secondly right? And, raise the baffle to at least another 2" or so between the skimmer and reef rubble?

I never even thought about the flow for the fuge.

Maybe you can PM me on how to set that up using the main pump. I will have 2 Rio 17HF running, so I should be able to partition off a section for the fuge. I saw your new sump, and it looks awesome! I just hope I can get mine to do that as well. Thanks again!

Mike

 

[RLG2182]

So you are suggesting to put the lr in the first chamber, then the skimmer and pump secondly right? And, raise the baffle to at least another 2" or so between the skimmer and reef rubble?

 

[Salttanker]

Thanks Rob. I will apply that information. The Home Depot close by sells acrylic sheets, so I will see what is available to create the baffles with. Would you happen to have a diagram of your sump that I could compare mine with?

Mike

 

[lando]

Hey Mike. I am glad you are getting other opinions. I still say skim first. This will allow a greater amount of oxygenated water over any chemical filtration prior to the LR rubble. It will also aid in cleaning the skimmer without any biomedia upset. It seems many commercial wet/drys or sumps I see have the skimmer first in line as well.

 

[Salttanker]

Thanks Brian. I will continue to do some more research before it's finalized.

That is why I love this site!

Mike

 

[RLG2182]

Mike... here's what I have (not to scale). The only thing you need to do to measure out the compartments is see how much water depth your skimmer needs to be in. You can always have your skimmer on stilts like I have. It's up to you on placement on skimmer... that's just what I did. There's just a few "rules" of sump building... like the placement of bubble traps, how to determine how high baffles you'll need to account for backflow syphon, etc. Everything else is just preference.

HTH... happy DIYing!!!

 

[Salttanker]

Where did you find your information when you designed yours? I definitely don't want to mess my new sump up. I am even more glad that I decided to go with the built in filtration over the HOB prefilter. That thing is chapping my...anyway, Thanks for your feedback, and hopefully I can find some more information on the technical requirements for the sump soon.

Mike

 

[Brenden]

Mike the one I sent you is about the same as RLG2182's except the refugium gets the water supply for it from the overflow split with a ball valve. I do not like the idea of using a pump for your flow control in the refugium. If I am going to have to pay to run a pump I want to use it all for circulation and not to redirect water in my sump. Anyone see a problem with that?

 

[RLG2182]

I found mine by looking at 1018234901289012 other sumps online and in person. Just compiled the info and built what I thought was best. My skimmer is 2nd merely because I couldn't fit the skimmer into the far left (as my electrical is on that end) and I didn't want to have to move everything over. But, most of the pics I found had the LR Rubble first anyways. Makes sense about the oxygen comment though Decide what you want to put into your sump first, how big the "footprint" is for the skimmer, and how much room you have left for a bubble trap, fuge, and LR chamber. Plan it out, and let us know. HTH

 

[RLG2182]

If I am going to have to pay to run a pump I want to use it all for circulation and not to redirect water in my sump.

This would be true... but as is, my pump had to be cut back because it was a bit strong for my 60. So, by just opening it up with some flow into my fuge... everything worked out great! Just depends on if you're using 100% of your pump for circulation or not. I just didn't want to run two pumps. Again, there's 10841290123 different possible configs for sumps.

 

[Salttanker]

Makes sense Brenden. I don't see why that wouldn't work.

Rob - Sounds good. At least this sump will have more room than my current wet/dry sump to work with. The refugium was just an idea to put everything into one rather than having 2 containers. Plus, I think it will server an additional filtration purpose that will be excellent for my friends.

Mike