DIY Sump for turtles

[fruitwerks]

Well my old filter finally decided to take a dump on me (modded fluval 405) so I need something new.

I decided to go with some kind of sump thing I guess.

The whole setup so far...

384gph pump... and awesome filtration!

And from the turtles point of view.. somewhat.

I also have a 214GPH pump on the other side of this tank to stir things up a bit. I would like to do some type of bed with a grate and some rocks... but not just yet!

I have three 1in lines right now and I'm not sure if that will be enough if the pump is 384GPH, anyone know the math on this?

Maybe I'm doing it all wrong? After being setup for a few hours, my passive gravity feeds are very very passive... Open to suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Miguel4u2]

well i simply bought a wet dry filter from ebay and the pump and overflow box all for $130!! Its handles up to 200 gallons or more with 1300 gph. Got some bio balls in there and some scrubbers for biological filtration, thing works like a beast, and its working on a 55 gallon. All i see in your sump is a sponge for mechanical filtration and you will need biological filtration as well. So you need a way to make the water flow through a sponge and then something for biological filtration like lava rocks or optionally chemical filtration like carbon. I have all 3 types of filtration and my tank is spotless! Good Luck

 

[midnightCK]

how is that working exactly. lol. looks like its just moving water back and forth.. im sure running 2or3 power headds with prefilters would be the same. yet less clutter, and on tank.. the thing in the back IS a dock.. right..?

there is alot of good builds on sumps. just mod it a bit so u can run it with the tank on the side like that....

 

[fruitwerks]

That's cool, but I don't remember if I mentioned that I was going the spend no money route! I will get some glass to partition the sump portion once I figure it out though.

I have six turtles in there right now and they are all bigger than your little guy. I had to clean the old fluval once a week to keep it flowing nicely.

 

[fruitwerks]

how is that working exactly. lol. looks like its just moving water back and forth.. im sure running 2or3 power headds with prefilters would be the same. yet less clutter, and on tank.. the thing in the back IS a dock.. right..?

there is alot of good builds on sumps. just mod it a bit so u can run it with the tank on the side like that....

I took those pics right after I moved them outside so the tank was a little bare. They have plenty of room to swim and bask. I guess it is hard to see what is going on in those pics lol... the pump in the 20gal feeds back to the main tank and everything else are passive feeds... trying to figure out how much I need. They are not giving me much action.

I wish I could just get it drilled an buy another fluval fx5... that would fix it all up.

 

[Miguel4u2]

That's cool, but I don't remember if I mentioned that I was going the spend no money route! I will get some glass to partition the sump portion once I figure it out though.

I have six turtles in there right now and they are all bigger than your little guy. I had to clean the old fluval once a week to keep it flowing nicely.

That is the best way to go, partition with glass and and make water flow through the types of filtration you are going to use, u can leave some space for your heater as well, you know how does little daredevils are. O and my turtles live with a lot of fish as you can see but they were raised with fish and are used to them and i never fed them fish just turtle food, fruits, vegetables, and shrimp.

 

[fruitwerks]

Thanks for all the input!

The sump portion is far from done. I need to get some glass and silicone it in there. But first I am still trying to figure out how much passive feed I need. Eventually I would like to make an elevated bed of rocks so all the funky stuffs fall under so it can be easily sucked out by the passive feeds. Unfortunately these turtles can not live with fish, they even ate a 7in pleco and I feed them better than I feed myself!

 

[fruitwerks]

I finally figured I need 2 inches of passive flow. Anyone have any good idea for intake designs? The rock-bed idea will have to wait a while and I would like something more than raw pipe. The turtles are big so they won't get stuck in a pipe, and with passive flow they are not going to get stuck on it.

I also moved the other pump in to the sump so I have about 600GPH. I will break down and get a single pump probably around 900GPH - any suggestions on that? 20gal sump and about 50gal in the tank.

I also have a tertapond uv1 steralizer not sure how I'm going to use that as it is not fully submersable. And I don't want to run it on an outflow, I like it to flow through slowly, I think it is more effective that way.

I will post some more pics when I have something worthy of show.

Thanks!