Converting 55g to wet/dry sump

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keiths

keiths

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 6, 2008
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St. Louis
Hey everyone. I am in the planning stages to get a ray. I am getting ready to purchase a 220 gallon aquarium. I have a 55 gallon that I want to turn into a sump. I've never done this before and there isn't a ton of information online about doing this for freshwater.

Should I only use bioballs in it? How do I know how many bioballs to use and how big should I make the section for the bio balls?

How do I figure out how much water to push into it? I was looking at getting this overflow, probably 1500gph - http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3642. Is this enough? How big of a pump would I need to push the water back to the tank? Just the same gph as the overflow?

I was also thinking about making part of the sump a refugium. Maybe to breed my own food for the rays. If not that then maybe to buy food in bulk and just store it in the refugium. Anyone have any experience on this?

Anyone know any good resources for doing what I am trying to accomplish?

Thanks
 
Just bioballs is alright, but I usually use a mix of media. As long as a lot of bacteria can grow on it, it'll be ok.

I usually aim to get a pump that'll flow 3-5x more than the tank volume per hour. With rays you might want to go a bit higher. Make sure the overflow is capable of flowing more than the return pump can. That way it won't create a spill if the overflow can't keep up.
 
I have a 200 gallon tank and my sump is 80 gallons. Using a 55 gallon I would make it all sump and not try anything fancy like a refugium. I made mine a 3 chamber: first chamber has blue filter pad, second is full of pot scrubbies, and third has heaters and return pump. With the 55 either you can have glass cut and silicone it in to make the chambers or you can buy egg crate and silicone it in. My overflows in my main tank are 1 1/4" below the surface, I calculated how many gallons that is and used that to determine how much water to run in my sump. If my power goes out, when the tank stops draining into the sump I still have 2 inches before the sump overflows. Hope some of this helps.
 
Can I use acrylic to make the chambers if it's a glass tank?

Which blue filter pads did you use? Is it completely full of them?
 
keithslater2;2508008; said:
Can I use acrylic to make the chambers if it's a glass tank?

Which blue filter pads did you use? Is it completely full of them?
Click to expand...
Absolutely. You can also use corian, ABS, PVC, or any other plastic sheet that you want. To maximize biological media space, I put polyester quilt batting on the drip plate as mechanical filtration.
 
Silicone doesn't stick to acrylic very well, but it sticks to glass really well. So you can use acrylic with no problem as long as you lay it on thick at the joints. Here are a couple pics of my sump before I fully filled the middle chamber with pot scrubbies. I get the 24" wide filter pad from a local heating and air place. It comes on 60' rolls and is about 1 inch thick. I cut off enough to put 3 layers in the mechanical filter chamber. The first pic is the left side and the second is the right side. I built the sump and then built the stand around it to make it as large as I could.

sump1.jpg

IMG_1534.JPG
 
Good info guys. I guess my next question is about the plumbing. Is there any good websites or videos that you recommend that talk about plumbing a sump? How do you know how big the pvc pipes need to be, etc..
 
filter sock holders.... and fill it with submerged media... easiest way to make a filter..
 
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