I just grabbed this 40 gallon tall acrylic tank off craigslist, i'm wanting to make it into a sump but can't seem to find any plans on how to do it.. If someone could help me that would be great.. Pics would be even better..
Need help making this tank into a sump...
- Thread starter hbluehunter
- Start date
What do you want in the sump? You want an external pump or submersible? Will you be using Floss, scrubbies, bio balls, porous filter stone, sponge? Do you want planted refungium type system?
To be honest i'm VERY new to sumps&wet/dry filters.. I recently bought a 300 gal and it only came with a 20 gal wet/dry, i just wanted to put a much bigger sump in it's place.. I should mention this is NOT the only filter on the tank i have 2 FX5's also..
Now to answer your question probably submersible pump and thinking of doing scrubbies but i have 10 gallons of bio balls i could throw in there too.. Besides that i'm up to anyones opinions to what i should add..
Now to answer your question probably submersible pump and thinking of doing scrubbies but i have 10 gallons of bio balls i could throw in there too.. Besides that i'm up to anyones opinions to what i should add..
This is a basic diagram of what I did. I changed a few things around but for the most part the concept was the same.
I ended up using 2 layers of filter floss instead of the AC110 sponges. One layer rested in the drip tray, the other layer was about an inch under the drip tray. I found it was much easier to change the floss in the tray once a month and the bottom layer every 2-3 months. Pot scrubbies for bio, then I just kept buying scrubbies and ceramic bio media and placed it on the bottom of the tank for even more bio media.
And the finished product:
I ended up using 2 layers of filter floss instead of the AC110 sponges. One layer rested in the drip tray, the other layer was about an inch under the drip tray. I found it was much easier to change the floss in the tray once a month and the bottom layer every 2-3 months. Pot scrubbies for bio, then I just kept buying scrubbies and ceramic bio media and placed it on the bottom of the tank for even more bio media.
And the finished product:
Add a small piece of drilled plexi on raised pegs above the filter floss and drill 1/4" holes in a grid pattern. You may have to pull debris out of the holes but the water will get all you scrubies. If you don't distribute the flow you will waste some of the scrubbies surface area.
Mudfrog;3537444; said:
As a friendly critique...
In the design above... there is first layer of filtration is fine mesh material. It would be more efficient to use more porous material (such as the sponges) to remove larger particles, then allow the fine mesh to only have to remove the finer particles. This will allow the media to last considerably longer between cleanings...
As shown, the sponges will likely never need to be cleaned wyet the filter floss will need to be changed frequently... changing filter floss is fairly quick and easy, therefore this isn't a critical point... but of "educational" purposes I felt it worth explaining...
Personally, I would use more baffles creating more chambers... allowing each chamber to offer a different form of filtration. This would allow course media, then fine media, then very fine media, then bio media... if planned properly the multi baffle/chamber approach will still allow the bio media to be "wet/dry" even though it is well after the thorough mechanical filtration....
This is what I did. Pretty simple, it had 3 chambers; Mechanical, Biological Media, then the return.
PM me if you have any q's.
bomber
PM me if you have any q's.
bomber
In order to create different chambers you will have to somehow figure out how to get acrylic panels to glue to the inside of the tank, you could use acrylic glue, but you would have to make some sort of support. Silicon doesnt stick will to acrylic so that presents the problem.
uncwnells;3537939; said:
While silicone does not stick to acrylic or plexiglas well enough to create a water tight seal that will hold up under presure...
I would trust it to hold a baffle in place in a sump though. This seal does not need to be truly water tight nor does it need to withstand pressure.
You could use acrylic glue or even PVC cement, but these products will create a permanent seal and not allow room to make changes/adjustments in the future...