Help with building sump tanks

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C

CopperHearts

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2012
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Mendocino County, California
Hi everyone,

I'm looking to build a couple sump tanks for a 120g and a 180g. Both are freshwater and will be housing goldfish and maybe an oscar(seperate!) or more goldies. The aquariums that I'll be using are 30g and 45g. The big tanks are pre drilled through the bottom. I was told that I'd only need 3 chambers in the sumps. I don't know how tall to make the dividers, or how big to make the space under the raised one.
I guess my plan was to fill it with bio balls and/or ceramic media - just because that's what's in my canister filters on my smaller tanks. I don't know anything about building my own filtration system.

Thanks,

Charlotte
 
depending on what you want from it, you can get by without any baffles. I'd advise you to start reading this section. if you're going only for bio-just fill some filterbags with media, put a pump on one end and your done. some people use the sump for particulate filtration with filter socks or poly pads, mine is all bio and I run a emperor 400 on the sump for particulate.
ceramic media and bio balls do the same thing, but are best when used in different situations. bio balls work best above water under running water, ceramic is best used underwater.
mine I set up so it's almost completely full of water and all the media is submerged, that gives me around another 40 gallons of water in my system.
 
Thanks Gill Blue :)

I do want particulate in there too, so I'd probably want to use poly pads. I don't have the room to run any other filtration on the 120. It will all have to go in the sump. Would I need to put a baffle in for the filter pads?

What point in the system is the emperor 400 placed? Is it in place of the pump?
 
I would try to incorporate filter socks on the drain portion for mechanical filtration and use submerged media for bio. I would leave out the baffles and make the sump as simple as possible because it makes for easy maintenance. The harder the maintenance the less likely you will clean it regularly.

I'm guessing since your tanks are drilled on the bottom that you have overflow weirs in the display tank. Google herbie overflow to keep the drains silent. Check out this link http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/ great info on how to set one up.
 
Thank you for all the great info, guys :)
This seems to be much less complicated than I thought.

I have a question about the drill holes, though.

Both of the tanks have 4 holes. I assumed that one hole was for in and the other was for out, behind each weir - but if the in & out tubes are in the same weir, wont that make most of the water coming from the sump, go right back in - instead of circulating through the tank first?
 
no, the emperor has nothing to do with water return, it's just a hob filter that runs on the sump exactly the same way it would on a tank.

the big holes are for drain, smaller holes for the pump. I only have 1 overflow, but the return has a flexible dual output and even divided in half it's putting out 500 GPH. that's 8 GPM. so it's moving pretty quick and away from the overflow.
DSCN5566.JPG
there's enough water movement that it keeps my tank O2 saturated.

DSCN5566.JPG
 
So, I checked both of the drilled tanks. All of the holes seem to be the same size, 1". I bought 1 overflow kit to see if I could buy the pieces for cheaper. The instructions mention a bigger and a smaller hole(3/4 & 1"). I'm worried that the bulkheads that come in the kit won't work - but I'll have to go measure them.

These are Aqueon tanks.
 
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