Help me put my spare 55 to good use.

[pelleeklund]

I'm trying to figure out what I should do with a spare 55 gallon I have laying in one of my closets and I figured I would toss this around with you guys to see what you think. Basically I have two different plans, both of which I feel threaten my basement carpets, and was wondering if anyone here could help me put my mind at ease.

My first idea was to create a sump below my 220 for extra filtration and maybe as a grow out tank for the farm team. Extra filtration is always good, but, heres what scares me and what I would see as it's downfalls;

1. I'm new to this idea but to the best of my knowledge this method relies entirely on syphoning water from the upper tank and pumping it upwards back in. I have constant power outages and fear the pump would stop while the water kept on flowing. A wide open 55 scares me, it could flood the hell out of my house. That would suck.

2. I wouldn't get to see my little ones grow without climbing under my tank. It would be out of sight, and that's not the way I want to keep fish.

With this in mind I thought about getting rid of the 20 high I have on my bookshelf and just putting the 55 there instead. This would be ideal, as long as it doesn't crush the bookshelf. My question would be does anyone know how much a 55 gallon tank weighs with water and 50 pounds of gravel? And do you think it would crush the bookshelf in this picture I included? I would like to state that I have comfortably stood on these exact bookshelves and I weigh 220. Go ahead, take a guess.

So that's my two options as far as I can tell. I'm no genius with sumps and really don't understand their mechanics or value exactly so I appreciate any knowledge anyone would want to share about them. Also if there is anyone here who could tell how sturdy these shelves are just by looking at them let me know.

 

[Dane]

A properly placed overflow will not allow your sump to overflow. You will leave enough room in the sump so that what siphons out will not overflow the sump.

 

[pelleeklund]

So I would leave the intake hose only an inch or so in the upper tank and compensate below by not filling the 55 fully right. In your opinion do you think sumps are worth it in general? I'm leaning towards destroying my bookshelf and carpet unless there is something about the extra filtration that could be extremely beneficial. Thanks for your response.

 

[Dane]

Yeah they are worth it. I just put one under my 125g (the sump is like 20g maybe) and my tank has never been clearer. You can put a lot more media in a sump than you can in any other filter type. Plus you get the added benefit of more water. So my 125 is more like a 140 as far as bioload and such go.
My overflows are set about 1/2 inch below the trim on my tank. The water level is right at the trim. So if the power goes out only about 3-4 gallons backflows into the sump.

 

[pelleeklund]

Awesome. Thanks for explaining some of the details for me too. Makes perfect sense. Do you think the 20 gallon high would be effective for the sump? Much less room for media but it could be fully dedicated to filtering. In a perfect world I would be able to use all three tanks but unfortunately i'm limited with space. I would like to use the two bigger aquariums in my two spots and maybe put the 20 in the sump position. Best of both worlds if it works.

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

water is 8 pounds per gallon and rocks I believe are more around 12pounds a gallon (if you fit crushed up rocks into a gallon container)

 

[pelleeklund]

I had assumed the water would be about 440 some pounds and the rocks were easy, they came in two 25 pound bags, so thats ten shy of 500. Im wondering what the empty glass tank alone weighs so I can get an estimate of the overall weight. I'd guess about 30 pounds so lets say the whole deal would be around 520 pounds give or take. Now I will have to invite 2-3 friends over to stand on my bookshelf and see whether it caves. Probably go 4 just to be sure. The thing seems really solid but those are usually the famous last words. If anyone knows a better way to check this things load capacity please let me know, im flying by the seat of my pants here.

 

[Dane]

This is where the generalized 10 lbs per gallon comes in. If you figure a 55 weighs 550 lbs with water, substrate, tank, and accessories you will be pretty safe.

As for the 20g being good for a sump? Sure, people have done sumps in all sorts of configurations (do a search). However, I would think that a 20 high would be a little awkward to service.

 

[kallmond]

I'm not sure that a sump is really necessary, unless you just want to do it.

I looked into a sump for my 55g build, and turns out it worked out to about the same money as a canister, when I bought all the materials (pump, media, baffles, silicone, etc)

 

[Valous]

I think sumps are good for adding the extra water volume. Now as far as price wise, just my 2 cents, they are only cost affective if its for a big tank or already have the materials around. Then only major down side is that if you are building your overflow then it can be kinda loud. But for me it actually helps me sleep, white noise.