A crazy sump idea

[fwiffo]

i coem with this at times and i thought i would run it by you fellows. i'd like to setup a sump eventually, but i am afraid of an overflow in my apartment. so what about an above tank sump for my small 20 gallon monster(pseudo-monster i know, but landlord says no to a 125...)?

the water would be pushed up into the tank by a small water pump, spill into the sump through a spout like a pipe on a dam spillway, then flow through the media like a normal sump design, but the return would be a simple pipe back into the tank, like a sink drain.

am i running the fatal risk though of a the tank overflowing in case of a power outage where the pump would be off and gravity would drain the sump's reservoir into the aquarium?! maybe there's a way around this i am not thinking of. any suggestions or comments? thanks.

 

[swede]

main things i see here are (1) if you have a 20 gallon tank, you don't need a sump. just run sponge filtration and a HOB and (2) you definitely run the risk of a siphon action spilling all over with that sump in case of power outage

 

[fwiffo]

right, but i was thinking about a solution to the overflow problem. what can i say, i like to think outside the box by coming up with these goofy ideas.

 

[swede]

hey thats cool and you need to think like that to advance things. but realistically, a sump on a 20 gallon is not worth it. a good sponge filter will do just as much

 

[bomber]

a sump on a 20 gallon is not worth it. a good sponge filter will do just as much

x2

 

[scottydosnntkno]

i don't see where the overflow would happen. above tank sumps generally don't have a resevoir, they just have holes in the bottom for the water to drain back into the tank. the only water you'd have to worry about would be what was in the hoses, as well as the little bit trickling through the sump itself

 

[JAFRIAS]

it sounds like u dont understand how a sump works , there is no extra water to overflow the sump , water is pumped from the sump to your tank, then that water overflows back to the sump

 

[MBilyeu]

Since the "sump" is above the main tank, then the maximum water you could have in the system is 20 gallons, which is what the main tank can hold. You could have an overflow box on your sump, then the total water volume would be what the main tank and sump could hold together. If the power were to ever shut off in this case, the only water that would drain to your main tank would be the small amount that would be in the overflow box.

 

[KaiserSousay]

If you want to, build it, it`s your time and money..would be a fun build..Have seen it done with a plastic plant window box here on MFK..if your interested, you can search the DIY.
Was actually pretty cool idea.
Agree that an over tank filter, which is what we are really talking about here will not overflow your tank at any time.

 

[swede]

sorry, i didn't understand about an above the tank sump. i thought it worked similarly to a sump that has an overflow and i thought the sump itself could spill. i still stand behind thinking that a sump on a 20 gallon is not worth the effort since you can get plenty of BB through other methods in a tank that size