big sump

[inspire0522]

i cant fit much of anything under my stand, so.. my tank is set up against a wall that separates a room from the closet. My plan is run my plumbing through the wall witch would alow me to have a big sump. My question is how big is to big.. i was thinking maybe like a commercial size trash can. Would a size this big be needed, or could you see anything wrong with this. thanks
51g tank
seaclone 150 skimmer
70p lr
60 ls
fluval 403
2 maxi 900 ph

 

[canyon15]

A good size would be 20% of your main tanks volume.

 

[austinsdad]

Gonna have to deal with the bubbles in the return. Also, not sure how a heater might do in rubber.

 

[ellisz]

You could use a rubbermaid container or even another glass or acrylic tank. I would rather have something wide vs deep. I have a 75 gal stock tank for my sump that holds about 50 gal of water. My display is a 75

At my last house I did the same thing you are mentioning. I cut a outlet box hole in the wall and ran my plumbing into a closet. I used a 20 gal tank for my sump and had a 25 gal refugium in a rubbermaid container. Only real issue with this the the humidity in the closet. I ended up have to vent the room to the outside and adding a duct fan to keep temp and humidity down. When I moved, I put a cover over the hole and it looked like a normal wall

 

[inspire0522]

thanks for the tip ellisz seems there is always something to do in this hobby hehe.. witch in my case is a good thing. so do you do pwc the same or not as often, with all the extra volume of water and the bio load being light? you still do 20% of the hole volume?

 

[austinsdad]

So how do you manage bubbles back itno the return from all that comotion as the water returns? Or is it not a problem at all. I was thinking about using the rubbermaid also, so if you can tell me that bubbles and heater wouldn't be a problem, I'm really interested. Would like to have a skimmer on it too. Ellisz, how'd you do the fuge in the rubbermaid? Got any pics or was that just at the last house?

 

[ellisz]

So how do you manage bubbles back itno the return from all that comotion as the water returns? Or is it not a problem at all.

There are a ton of bubbles but they get dispersed before the pump. My current sump is pretty big too soI have a lot of distance between the drains and the pump. I actually have 3 drains plus my skimmer dumping into the left side of my sump. I have the tank drain, the 20L frag tanks drain and the 10 gal frag tank drain dropping into the same area. I have some rock that breaks the surface of the water and acts as a baffle.

On my previous set up, I had a 20 gal tank on the floor as my sump. The 25 gal rubbermaid was sitting in a short TV stand so it was elevated above the sump. I had a PH in the sump that pumped into the fuge and then it gravity drained back into the sump. I had a small container in the sump that was wedged between the tank walls that acted as a baffle to stop bubbles.

On my current set up, I have a 75 gal stock tank. I have a 15 gal rubbermaid inside the stock tank. My display drain is Y's off and part dumps into the left side of the sump and another part dumps into the fuge. I have a ball valve on the fuge side to regulate the flow in the fuge. I drilled some holes in the side of the rubbermaid so that the water drains back into the sump. I have bubbles in the fuge right now but they don't make it to the sump. I did have a PH supplying the fuge but I removed it when I re-did my plumbing.

I need to get some pics of my current setup. It is a PVC maze It is very low tech though.

As for the heater, I would not let it sit on the bottom of the rubbermaid as it could melt the plastic. You could put it on some rock though.

Let me know if you have any more questions.