Large Aquarium Sump Ideas??

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J

jasoneri

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 21, 2008
79
2
38
michigan
I am putting in a 365g aquarium pretty soon (84x28x36) and need help planning a sump. Overflows in each corner is the plan but would like some pictures or even just some things you have ran into (problems, solutions). I have some ideas but it never hurts to get some insight.
Thanks in advance.
 
Since there are a lot of ways to approach a sump (the whole point is they can be customized) it would be helpful to let us know if you have a starting point. What kind of media are you planning and what sort of overflow style do you plan on using? If you dont know yet, no worries, I'm just looking to help get the ball rolling for you
 
Well I work for a distributor of pond supplies so I planned on matrix since it works great and I have pallets of it.
 
I'd go for something really simple if you've got access to large quantities of matrix. This is the sump I'm planning for my 500g, 4 filter socks and a big compartment full of matrix and noodles. Could be even simpler again if you just put the matrix in bags and sat it on the floor of the sump.

sump2.jpg
 
Thats pretty much the easiest way to do it, and I agree 100%. My design is pretty similar. Other considerations you may want to put your heaters in there, I even put my bubbler in my sump. You can even do a refugium if you wanted to add another compartment but if you are good about water changes and you dont overstock your tank you can do without.

The other thing you want to think about is how you want to extract water from your tank. You can do tradtional overflows that poor out or you can do a herby style over flow. Is your tank drilled already, or at least you plan on drilling it?
 
You really don't have to get a canister to help filtration but on a tank that size, It will be a lot of mantience so maybe you can save yourself some mantence wiith some more filtration... For a canister, I have heard good things about fx5s, I like ehiems so maybe an ehiem pro 2080 wich io belive is rated for 300 gallons... I like api/rena xp filstars... You might want to get more than one and the only ones worthwhile getting for a tank that big is the xp3 and the xp4...
 
I stole JC1119's sump design. My sump is a standard 75g with 3 filter socks. Then there is a big bag of media for each pump. The pumps are hooked up to tetra pond boxes and the media bags sit on top of he pond boxes. I have around 10lbs of ciramic rings and 1.5 gallons of matrix. It is the only filtration for my 225 and it keeps it spotless. And maintenance takes about 10 mins every 10 days or so. I have found no flaws so far and completely love the design. For pics click the link in my sig or find john's tank build.
 
Thank you for the insight. I have some great ideas, I figured this was the best place to ask. I do like the simple approach so keep the ideas coming. This is a work in progress, the tank hasn't been made yet but on order so there is still time to make some changes.
 
I like the sump recommendtations so far, so I have nothing to add there, but I would recommend having your builder drill holes to accommodate 2" Schedule 80 bulkhead fittings: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulkhead-schedule-80-thread-x-thread-2.html

In my experience, the schedule 80 bulkhead fittings are much less likely to leak or crack; they are a lot nicer than the cheap ABS bulkhead fittings.

Are you going with glass or acrylic?
 
As far as overflow lines go, for the valves i recommend gate valves. I used ball valves on mine to make the herby style overflow, but when one line is under a siphon, the ball valve is realy hard to turn. If you just do an overflow and not a siphon is shouldnt matter much, but if you ever need to adjust flow rate by valving a line, I would definitely do gate valves. Ball valves are hit and miss as far as adjusting goes
 
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