Sump/Nano-Reef questions

[ConanTheLibraia]

I have some questions about a sump. First of all, I had an idea about starting a 10 gallon nano-reef to reduce costs. Would it be abnormal to have a huge sump on a 10 gallon nano-reef to help keep the water stabilized? I mean, 10 gallon tank with a 25 gallon sump? I am assuming I would need to have the amount of liverock and DSB for a 35 gallon tank rather than 10 gallon tank if I had a sump this size, so would I put some of the liverock and DSB in the sump as well as the actual tank and have to have lighting for the sump, or could it be mixed however between the sump and tank? Also, would I have to get the tank drilled? A 600 gallon per hour hang on overflow seems like an awful lot. If I had a hang on overflow such as this, would that be all the waterflow for the tank needed? If I didn't have the waterflow required, would I have to just have water evenly flowing throughout the 10 gallon, or would I need to have PH's inside the sump too? Sorry, this has been a lot of questions, but lastly, would I need a protien skimmer?

 

[fishfreek]

I dont think thats abnormal. Usually a 10 gal with a 10 gal sump would be quite normal if you did a sump. A 10 gal with a larger sump would be fine if you had room for the sump.

I would say you could have the bulk of your sand bed in the sump/refuge and a few lbs of rock in the sump to go along with some in the main tank.

On the overflow. Just because its rated at 600GPH does ont mean you have to run it at that. You should be find running it at say 1/2 that rate. Going drilled will be good also as that will eleminate the possiblity of having air collect in the U tube due to slow flow.

A skimmer would be a good idea. Put it in the sump area. Water should not be stagnent but i dont think you need to enhance the water flow in the sump any more.

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

so the sump should be lighted?

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

oh, and, if your return pump is 250 gallons per hour, would that necessarily be the same as having 250 gallons per hour of water flow in the tank, therefore no PH's would be needed?

 

[d9hp]

You have to remember that you loose pressure the higher the pump has to push. Ask Kevin and Aaron, I searched for two weeks looking for the pump, it was one hell of a releif when Kevin showed me that reef.org site.