Final sump design

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
pshtex said:
So you might have heard this already but its just my 2 cents. I used to use PVC overflows like the ones in your drawing. I never wanted to pay to have holes drilled in my tank and i had never done it before or seen anyone do it in person. Well when i got my 125 i finally decided that i needed to drill the glass. So i did. And it was super easy and pretty cheap. i would highly recommend it. Since i drilled the tank i have realized that it is the only way to go. I am never going back to PVC overflows again.
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I agree, drill is the cleaner look. Its just Im a noob at DIY in general. Uarujoey makes it look so easy. I might do drill instead.
 
McPhish said:
Okay its fair to say K1s don't have the best bang for your buck then? So just stick with ceramic rings?
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Not saying K1 isn't effective, as it is. Just not as effective in a sump setup. I think the majority of folks overcomplicate the biofiltration part of things to begin with. As long as you have enough surface area to support your stock, you'll have a healthy system regardless of the type of bio used
 
OKay new game plan, drill tank. screw the baffles + K1, all ceramic rings. now I just gotta figure out bulkhead size
 
Are you keeping monster fish or cichlids?

I did the whole ceramic ring, pot scrubbies, and bio ball thing. Friggin sucked cleaning them every few months......

I'd drill the tank, it IS really easy. The hardest part is getting over the intimidation of it, it IS really super easy, and as long as you use a drill with a clutch it's going to be pretty hard to screw up. I'd recommend building a jig though, makes the start a LOT easier.

I can tell you one thing, after using K1 I'll never go back, but then again I enjoy a challenge and believe the good stuff is worth the work. I don't short cut anything, I do it right, and when it's done it feels great knowing there's little to no improvements.

To do it right I'd run a normal sump, crazy turnover -big return pump, some rings in the sump as a fail safe. Then use a smaller auxillary pump to run water out to a UV then a K1 reactor.
 
I run a 75g sump on my 225. It has 3 drains. Each drain goes into a 7x16 50 micron sock. I get about 7-9 days out of each sock change. I change them right as they start to fill up, before they overflow. I've cleaned my sump once, and it was super easy. I just filled two 5 gallon buckets with old tank water and sloshed one media bag in each then threw them back in the sump. I have a pond box on both sump pumps and have a media bag on top of each box. One filled with rings and one filled with pond matrix. It is by far the easiest set up I can imagine. And also the most cost effective. I'm all for high end crazy setups. And perfectly boiling K1 sections are really cool. But saying they are easier to maintain isn't true. If I had K1 or my current media it wouldn't alter my maintenance time at all...
 
Okay final plans:

120 tank with 29 sump (18" tall) with 2.5" stand. Plan on drilling a 1.5" bulkhead in the back (1" from the top and 1" from the side). Fill with ceramics, Rio Plus 2500 HP Aqua Pump, 782 GPH.



  1. What size drill for 1.5" bulkhead?
  2. What type hose to use for return? How to make return hose/pvc hang on tank? (I don't plan on drilling the return). What are those outlets call?

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DB junkie said:
I did the whole ceramic ring, pot scrubbies, and bio ball thing. Friggin sucked cleaning them every few months.....
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I'm sure it would suck cleaning them out every few months, what was up with your mechanical filtration that the bio media needed cleaning that often? Even with my fairly coarse Poret foam and messy Panaques I only had to clean my bio media after ~12 months, and when I did I put it in bags to make it easier next time. And when I say "had to" I really mean "felt like I should". I only cleaned it because it looked dirty, nitrification was still happening just fine and the ammonia was always zero.

I'm not saying K1 isn't any good, if I were building something even bigger than my current tank I'd almost certainly go with it for the maintenance factor, but for the amount of bio media needed for a 120g tank I don't think it is worth the hassle when a couple of bags of ceramic rings will do the same job and only require a quick swirl in a bucket of tank water once a year. Alternately (for the 120g) I'd consider using Poret foam as an HMF-style filter in the sump, if you run fine filter socks before the foam it should stay clean a long time, and it would be dead easy to clean if/when required.
 
David R said:
I'm sure it would suck cleaning them out every few months, what was up with your mechanical filtration that the bio media needed cleaning that often? Even with my fairly coarse Poret foam and messy Panaques I only had to clean my bio media after ~12 months, and when I did I put it in bags to make it easier next time. And when I say "had to" I really mean "felt like I should". I only cleaned it because it looked dirty, nitrification was still happening just fine and the ammonia was always zero.

I'm not saying K1 isn't any good, if I were building something even bigger than my current tank I'd almost certainly go with it for the maintenance factor, but for the amount of bio media needed for a 120g tank I don't think it is worth the hassle when a couple of bags of ceramic rings will do the same job and only require a quick swirl in a bucket of tank water once a year. Alternately (for the 120g) I'd consider using Poret foam as an HMF-style filter in the sump, if you run fine filter socks before the foam it should stay clean a long time, and it would be dead easy to clean if/when required.
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That's what Im feeling too, K1 is great for the true monster tanks. for an 120 ceramics should do the job fine.
 
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