Help With Sump Design?

[Pazzoman]

Hey Everybody,

First off is thier any app on the mac that lets you draw things lol and write? This would help me in creating my sump lol

Well I'm new to the sump world on freshwater as I've always done canister and HOBs....after Ive been using my sump with my marine set up I have liked it the most and will not go back to cansiter and hob for my next larger tank.



In my marine type sump, I have water going into my filter socks first, then protein skimmer, then refugium and then back into the tank thru a pump. I would like to have a sump that has a fuge because I hope to one day have stingrays and if they do breed id like to keep the pups on the bottom of the tank away from thier parents.

I feel that just having filter socks and the refugium (I could put plants in if needed) woudn't be enough. HELP LOL! Confused on how many chambers are needed!

Hope this wasnt to confusing!

 

[Egon]

Good questions. I go the simplest way. Filter socks, large bio area, return section with the pump.
The pictures below show the sump with out the bio media. The middle section is completely filled with bio balls now.

As far as putting fish in the sump you have to remember the amount of flow in the sump. My set up is a 180 gallon tank with a 55 gallon sump and the sump isn't filled all the way. I would say a conservative estimate of water flow through the sump is about 4X the flow in the tank. Smaller fish in the sump are going to get tired out swimming in that current. Most likely your going to kill them in a sump like mine.

Good luck with your sump and go as large as possible. Oh yeah I keep my heater in my sump also!

 

[Pazzoman]

Thanks for the pics will keep that desgn in mine defintly. Hw is your tank running? What kinds of fish? I say this because most likely I will need a sump for a tank of preds like stingrays and I'm worried about how much they **** Thanks

 

[Pharaoh]

The simplest way I've seen was from Jcardona1. He used an aquarium for a sump. All he had was the tank, some ceramic media in a bag, two filter socks and a submersible pump. No dividers, no nothing and he said it worked well. I will probably do the same thing on my next sump. Eliminated the unneccesary and focus on what is important.

 

[Gill Blue]

this is how mine ended up. worked out great. a 19"x23"x6" sponge filter followed by a 13"x23"x10" ceramic media area. the listed measurements are a bit off, but I didn't see the need to mod the drawing after the sump was already built. The divider over the eggcrate is a bit higher than in the drawing also, it keeps about an inch of water over the top of the foam and ceramic.


the major diff I got in my research was that for freshwater you don't need bubble traps. I don't use filter socks so the little fish and shrimps that sneak into the sump have a place to live until I can fish them out.

I run Linux, but I just used a basic paint program to draw it out. GNU Paint.

 

[Oughtsix]

You might be able to make a nice sump out of that Mac! At least it wouldn't be completely worthless!!!!


Try Google Sketchup. I don't know if there is a Mac version or not?

For a refugium I would make the water entrance and exit both overflows (opposed to underflows). This would confine the current to the top of the refugium compartment and leave the lower water relatively still. I would put a big sponge on the exit of the refugium and have the sponge protrude over the top of the partition so the fry don't get trapped.

 

[David R]

Can't help with the software, A; I've never used a mac and B; I find pencil and paper works best for designing that kinda thing!!

Sounds like you're on the right track, the key difference between SW and FW sumps is the FW sump must provide biological filtration (unless you're running a canister or something else for that) where as with a SW the bio usually comes from the rock in the tank. I like Egons design, simple and efficient, you would just need to make the last compartment longer to give you space for the ray pups, and perhaps put the pump over another divider to keep them away from it. I also found the filter socks work far better out of the water than above it, but it depends how much height you have and how often you're willing to change them. Basically, the order you want it running in is; tank -> mechanical filtration -> biological media -> fuge/grow out -> return to tank.

 

[Pazzoman]

Can't help with the software, A; I've never used a mac and B; I find pencil and paper works best for designing that kinda thing!!

Sounds like you're on the right track, the key difference between SW and FW sumps is the FW sump must provide biological filtration (unless you're running a canister or something else for that) where as with a SW the bio usually comes from the rock in the tank. I like Egons design, simple and efficient, you would just need to make the last compartment longer to give you space for the ray pups, and perhaps put the pump over another divider to keep them away from it. I also found the filter socks work far better out of the water than above it, but it depends how much height you have and how often you're willing to change them. Basically, the order you want it running in is; tank -> mechanical filtration -> biological media -> fuge/grow out -> return to tank.

Thanks for the layout ideas I will sketch up a desighn of some kind and post it soon, thanks for everybodys input and the help with the software...would be an expensive sump if I used the mac lol @oughtsix