I'm building a 55uk gallon freshwater SUMP, comments/sugestions please

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monstter77

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 15, 2009
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London
Hello Guys and Girls

I'm building a 55uk gallon freshwater SUMP for my soon to be built 1200uk gallon tank.

I've never built a sump before but have been doing a bit of research

I'm not sure if I needed the Carbon filter but I put it in there anyway

You'll notice that I've put the filter material in vertically, this is so that the water has to travel through 12inches of fibre rather than 2 inches if it was horizontal

I've also put 3 2inch holes along the top of the tank which will lead straight to the drain. This is so that the sump will never overflow in the event of anything breaking down

Please post your comments/advise/ideas as to how to improve this sump or to tell me if you think somethink might not work

Thanks in advance

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(My design is attached to this thread)

sump design.jpg
 
My best advice is to build it modular instead of having all the dividers permanently attached. Most people don't consider doing this, but should for the simple fact that cleaning most sumps is a royal pain in the rear.

Two things I wouldn't do that you're doing.

1) Your bio ball section is flooded, but has no flow through it. This also makes it to where evaporation is going to cause your pump to cavitate and/or run dry if you don't monitor it frequently. This could be remedied by putting cutout down by where your heater is.

2) You don't have a drip plate of any kind to distribute the water over your bio balls and they are sitting on the bottom of the sump. You're going to get dead areas. I'd put eggcrate under the bio balls to raise them an inch or so off the bottom of the sump so debris doesn't collect on them.

I'd build the bioballs section as one module and the other media sections as another module. If you don't understand what I mean, I can further explain it.
 
nolapete;2888339; said:
My best advice is to build it modular instead of having all the dividers permanently attached. Most people don't consider doing this, but should for the simple fact that cleaning most sumps is a royal pain in the rear.

Two things I wouldn't do that you're doing.

1) Your bio ball section is flooded, but has no flow through it. This also makes it to where evaporation is going to cause your pump to cavitate and/or run dry if you don't monitor it frequently. This could be remedied by putting cutout down by where your heater is.

2) You don't have a drip plate of any kind to distribute the water over your bio balls and they are sitting on the bottom of the sump. You're going to get dead areas. I'd put eggcrate under the bio balls to raise them an inch or so off the bottom of the sump so debris doesn't collect on them.

I'd build the bioballs section as one module and the other media sections as another module. If you don't understand what I mean, I can further explain it.
Click to expand...

First off thanks for replying so quickly

Sorry I'm not to sure what you mean by Modular

I was thinking if there were just three squares of filter media I could just pull them out and wash them and put them back in

I thought that the Bio Ball section would just fill with water and then pour over the side into the heater/return pump section, would it be better like you said to have the hole/space at the bottom of the tank on the right side of the Bio Balls to let it flow under and through to the heater/return pump?

Or should I have the Bio Balls in the first section and have a kind of sive that the water from the tank flows through and sprays all of the Bio Balls?

Would it also be better to have the sections more narrow and taller so that there's less surface area for the water to evaporate?

Do I need the Carbon section?

Thanks again for your time

:)
 
By mudular I mean, instead of just gluing a wall across, build a box with cut outs and the walls included that you can remove from the sump. It takes more material and effort, but each section can be removed. Simply put, the modules are just boxes within a bigger box (your sump). It's the exact same thing you have, but with sides that contain each section so they can be removed.

Just think of it as a giant hang on back filter except it doesn't hang on the back of the tank. All the insides of HOB filters come out for cleaning.

The sections are fine as far as location. You want the media sections to catch all the debris before it gets to the bioballs. The overall design is great with the exception of the things I already pointed out.
 
nolapete;2888810; said:
By mudular I mean, instead of just gluing a wall across, build a box with cut outs and the walls included that you can remove from the sump. It takes more material and effort, but each section can be removed. Simply put, the modules are just boxes within a bigger box (your sump). It's the exact same thing you have, but with sides that contain each section so they can be removed.

Just think of it as a giant hang on back filter except it doesn't hang on the back of the tank. All the insides of HOB filters come out for cleaning.

The sections are fine as far as location. You want the media sections to catch all the debris before it gets to the bioballs. The overall design is great with the exception of the things I already pointed out.
Click to expand...
Thanks again nolapete

What do you think of these 2 designs?

sump design2.jpg

sump design3use.jpg
 
2nd one looks afective
 
I'd use the original design. The vertical media chambers make it easier to replace one type of media at a time. With the horizontal version in the new diagrams, you have to touch the layers of media above the one you want to replace.

Just add the raised eggcrate and right lower side cut out to the bio ball section.

The small powerhead is not necessary. The less mechanical things that can fail the better. Just get a piece of thin plexiglas to go over the bioballs and drill 1/4" holes 5 per inch like the number 5 side of a die pattern.

Dice.jpg
 
nolapete;2889430; said:
I'd use the original design. The vertical media chambers make it easier to replace one type of media at a time. With the horizontal version in the new diagrams, you have to touch the layers of media above the one you want to replace.

Just add the raised eggcrate and right lower side cut out to the bio ball section.

The small powerhead is not necessary. The less mechanical things that can fail the better. Just get a piece of thin plexiglas to go over the bioballs and drill 1/4" holes 5 per inch like the number 5 side of a die pattern.
Click to expand...
Thanks again

The only reason I put them horizontally in the new diagrams is that I was worried about whether the water flow would be strong enough to push through all the media plus up and down each compartment
 
Great sketch ups, I glad support has been found. Looking forward to the build
 
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