Sump design, please help

[Paulm87]

Please help I've never made a sump before and need to know if my design is ol or if anyone thinks I need more chambers, or extra items. I would also like to know what size holes I should drill in my sump or if the pipe going directly into the sump is just as good. Any advice is appreciated, thanks

[Unicorn]

Hello there fellow sump builder
I'm in the middle of designing mine too, and every time I look at my rough draw I catch myself re-designing again LOL

There is no need for drilling holes into the sump tank. U can have the water go direktly into the first champer via pipes or hoses

What I would change about ur design is the size of the life rock chamber, there should be more surface are IMO... maybe post meassurements

GOOD LUCK

[David S]

Originally Posted by Paulm87

Please help I've never made a sump before and need to know if my design is ol or if anyone thinks I need more chambers, or extra items. I would also like to know what size holes I should drill in my sump or if the pipe going directly into the sump is just as good. Any advice is appreciated, thanks

Thats fine for a sump,but remove the nearest baffle to the return pump as it will cause bubbles when the water level drops.I would have the second section and third section as large as posible,second one add some chaeto and a cheap light and keep the return section as large as possible because this is the section the water level will drop in due to evaporation.

[Jereli]

I would probably make the return section small as possible and just add a ato. And make skimmer section and love rock section biggest possible. I struggle alot to get a filter sock in my skimmer chamber because its so tight of a space . Makes cleaning the filter sock alot more work when you have no room to work with. that is if u plan using a sock.

[Paulm87]

Whats an ato? And what exactly is a filter sock and where does it go?

[Jereli]

Ato is an "auto top off". We all lose water due to evaporation and you need to keep adding water to your system to make up for the water that has evaporated. Otherwise your return pump can run dry and your salinity will eventually be increasing. An ATO will take care of this for you. The filter sock is just normally used on the drain plumbing of your display tank to catch larger debris and will keep your sump a little cleaner. Your drain will run through this sock before entering your sump. Alot of people use them and alot of people don't. It would probably just be personal preference.

[Paulm87]

I was looking at auto top off device but just don't want to spend a fortune on one that's all. Any you recommend? Do you prefer using a filter sock?

[MrPeon99]

I split the out line on my ro/di system and run it straight to my sump with a float valve. Cost me $11 bucks. And I'm still able to fill up buckets or anything else with the other line.

[Jereli]

I have not used any of the ATO available. I just built my own ato since I had most of the supplies laying around the garage.

As far as the filter sock goes... I do use one but I feel like getting rid of it sometimes lol. It must be cleaned often and I am kinda lazy at doing it because its not so easy to access mine because my skimmer gets in the way. When I didn't use a sock the bottom of my sump got really dirty so I prefer to catch all that in the sock and wash it out then to let the bottom of my sump get really nasty.