Monster sump running smoothly

[Ramesh]

I wasn't happy with the way my monster sump was running so I made a few alterations.
What do you guys all think??
I increased the height of the first baffle and removed the fine white filter pads.
This stopped the overfull into the second chamber and stopped waste flowing directly through to the drip tray and bio media area.
I also had to lower the height of the second baffle and drip tray height.
I didn't want to do this and loose any bio media but I only had to removed 20-25 scrubbies to get the sump to flow properly and the media to be showered evenly.
I have a small sand filter and the sump filtering my 8'x4'x28" 500g tank which currently houses my Gator gar and two large Gibbies.
It should take 4-6wks to mature but has enough punch to cope with much larger fish and bio loads in the future.
I use a Rio 20HF as a return pump and feed the sump via two 40mm PVC drains.

 

[Ramesh]

Here's a quick link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_4pe5R6-qs

 

[tcarswell]

Very cool ! 500 gallon with gars! drooollsss

 

[Pharaoh]

Very nice!

 

[jack frost]

ok I have a question it appears you have filters and some kinda media in the first compartment. Is the water flowing out through the bottom or the top of the first compartment??? If it's going out through the top whats the point of all the stuff in the first compartment the water isn't flowing through it so its really not doing any thing right???.
Be easy on my I'm a noob here and trying to learn

 

[Ramesh]

Newbie hey!!
Well welcome to MFK.
Well if you look closely you will see the first baffle(divider) doesn't go all the way to the bottom in the photo.
It has a self with some egg crate and PVC tube cut to size on the bottom.
This is to hold the floam and media off the bottom and help the water flow smoothly.
The first compartment does all the mechanical filtering and is packed the foam as well as a liter of Purigen, 2 liters of Carbon and filter bags packed with some fluval and Eheim sintered glass media and another with aquaclay.
In effect I have submered mechanical, biological and chemical filtration all in one compartment before the wet/dry bio chamber where I have a drip tray.
I was only going to have foam in the first chamber for mechanical filtration only but the section was large enough for me to also add other media for added benifits.

Watch the video closely and you will notice the water levels are different between the baffles.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

Nice

I bet cleaning that is going to be fun.

 

[Ramesh]

The only real cleaning needed is of the first chambers mechanical filter foam which is very easy to assess.
The whole sump is on coasters and I can drain and slide the whole thing out.
The bio chamber shouldn't need to be cleaned especially with all the pre-filtering before the water gets there.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

oh thats good

It looked like you would have to fight with the pvc to get the mechanical media's out for cleaning or disassemble the pipes.

You should get a long life out of the bio chamber, but over time it will get gunked up pretty bad.

Ever seen the floor of a 10yr old bio chamber that hadn't been torn down?
yucky

 

[tcarswell]

oh thats good

It looked like you would have to fight with the pvc to get the mechanical media's out for cleaning or disassemble the pipes.

You should get a long life out of the bio chamber, but over time it will get gunked up pretty bad.

Ever seen the floor of a 10yr old bio chamber that hadn't been torn down?
yucky

True that. Thank god he thought ahead. Its on wheels