before all i had was a 20 gal sump with no bio or mechanical other than a canister on the main tank 
lots of algae fast! and with a 20 i couldn't fill it high enough for the protein skimmer to work properly.
for my new sump i used a 55 and used 5 gallon buckets for my filter chambers. the rims fit perfectly onto the rim of the 55, which is awesome.
1. the first bucket is filled with a course filter material. this is where the overflow from the main tank comes first.
2. directly below the first bucket is a pump that pumps to the wet dry at the opposite end of the tank. to make this chamber i drilled a million holes in the bottom of the bucket, filled it with red cinder and added a drip plate on top. the drip plate was made by cutting the bottom off of another bucket leaving a 2 inch or so rim around the edge and then drilling holes in that. this bucket isn't entirely suspended out of the water, but when i figure out a good way to do it i will. any ideas?
3. the middle bucket is where my return pump is housed, its in the bucket because i am going to have alot of plants and add some fiji mud and live sand as well. at first i wanted water to overflow into this bucket through a filter sock and then back to the tank, but the pump moves alot more water than the sock can handle, so i just let the water overflow all around the edges and through some more filter media down to the pump.
part of moving to a 55 was to allow room for an insump refugium, which didn't happen, so today i am going to rearrange the thing to allow for half the sump to be a refugium, i may have to combine the prefilter and wet dry to make room and just add a couple sheets of filter media on top of the cinder. any thoughts on this? also the sump houseing bucket will be cut down so that it can fit under the other two buckets.
the future plan for the sump is the "paint" drawing.
anyone have any ideas or improvement suggestions?
lots of algae fast! and with a 20 i couldn't fill it high enough for the protein skimmer to work properly. for my new sump i used a 55 and used 5 gallon buckets for my filter chambers. the rims fit perfectly onto the rim of the 55, which is awesome.
1. the first bucket is filled with a course filter material. this is where the overflow from the main tank comes first.
2. directly below the first bucket is a pump that pumps to the wet dry at the opposite end of the tank. to make this chamber i drilled a million holes in the bottom of the bucket, filled it with red cinder and added a drip plate on top. the drip plate was made by cutting the bottom off of another bucket leaving a 2 inch or so rim around the edge and then drilling holes in that. this bucket isn't entirely suspended out of the water, but when i figure out a good way to do it i will. any ideas?
3. the middle bucket is where my return pump is housed, its in the bucket because i am going to have alot of plants and add some fiji mud and live sand as well. at first i wanted water to overflow into this bucket through a filter sock and then back to the tank, but the pump moves alot more water than the sock can handle, so i just let the water overflow all around the edges and through some more filter media down to the pump.
part of moving to a 55 was to allow room for an insump refugium, which didn't happen, so today i am going to rearrange the thing to allow for half the sump to be a refugium, i may have to combine the prefilter and wet dry to make room and just add a couple sheets of filter media on top of the cinder. any thoughts on this? also the sump houseing bucket will be cut down so that it can fit under the other two buckets.
the future plan for the sump is the "paint" drawing.
anyone have any ideas or improvement suggestions?
