New to Sumps, need some questions answered.

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graham

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2006
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portland OR
So I am thinking about biulding a sump filter for my 90g tank. I have always used H.O.T. power filters so I am really new to this.
1) How does a sump not overflow or go dry after a time? The siphon effect and the pump cant match up perfectly so how does one or the other not occur?
2) How noisy are sumps?
3) Should I use 2 pumps? One to pump into the sump and one to pump back into the tank? Or just use the siphon to pump into the sump?

any info would be greatly apperciated, I am really lost right now.
 
graham;684450; said:
So I am thinking about biulding a sump filter for my 90g tank. I have always used H.O.T. power filters so I am really new to this.
1) How does a sump not overflow or go dry after a time? The siphon effect and the pump cant match up perfectly so how does one or the other not occur?
2) How noisy are sumps?
3) Should I use 2 pumps? One to pump into the sump and one to pump back into the tank? Or just use the siphon to pump into the sump?

any info would be greatly apperciated, I am really lost right now.
Click to expand...


I'm sure someone can supply a good link but I had all the same questions of how it works when I first set my first one up. Once you do it once it ALL MAKES SENSE. You have the water level set in your tank by the height of the overflow (assuming its hung on the top). Once the level goes above the top of the overflow it goes through your piping/tubing and returns to the sump by gravity. As long as you keep your sump level to the correct level you will not burn out your pump/s. Things to remember are #1. VERY IMPORTANT - Be sure that you put a "pinhole" just below the waterline in your return line (spraybar?). If you do have a power failure it will break the suction in the pump line and not allowing a siphon effect to dump 100 gallons of water into a 10 gallon sump! :) I use a larger powerhead with a tube run from the line you would connect to your air pump, and have it connected to the barbed fitting inserted in the top of the overflow. In doing this it basically becomes a self priming system and removes the air from the overflow allowing water to continue through and return to the sump. Does this all make sense? I have learned this setup from asking a lot of questions and reading a lot of info in the web (mostly the D.I.Y. MFK section). The powerhead to prime the overflow thing I got from a LFS when I was making 100 phone calls looking for a vacuum pump. One last thought is I dont use U-tube overflows but rather the one that is one solid channel. Also my setup has 2 return lines from the overflow. Handles the flow as well as allows for a backup if one line gets suddenly clogged. I also run 2 pumps in my sump with their own seperate lines to return water to the tank in different directions. Last thoughts. Fish guard. Made one out of scrap vinyl siding. Once you have all this set up and running allow me to answer your next question...
Yes they can all be very loud and will require some trial and error adjustments to quiet it down.

Hope all this early morning ramble helps. Its what I went through to get my system running.

- Also - Put your heater in the sump
 
graham;684450; said:
So I am thinking about biulding a sump filter for my 90g tank. I have always used H.O.T. power filters so I am really new to this.
1) How does a sump not overflow or go dry after a time? The siphon effect and the pump cant match up perfectly so how does one or the other not occur?
They dont rely on siphon unless it's a HOB overflow, and even then they don't "suck" the water out of the tank (they have baffles to "lock" water into it in case of a power failure--so they can self start when the power comes back on). They only flow what the pump returns. Think "overflow" in the literal sense.
2) How noisy are sumps?
It depends on the pump. If you get a high quality pump you wont even hear it running.
3) Should I use 2 pumps? One to pump into the sump and one to pump back into the tank? Or just use the siphon to pump into the sump?
2 pumps in the sump returning to the tank is best (completely redundant in case one fails). Never use a siphon to feed a sump. You're right in thinking that you're asking for trouble. For getting water to the sump, see #1
any info would be greatly apperciated, I am really lost right now.
Click to expand...

see green
 
thanks for the info guys. I still dont get how an overflow works though. Wouldnt it create a siphon? Pictures of overflows would be the best teacher here I think.
 
so I kinda get how overflows work now. They do siphon! The one thing I dont get is that in every overflow picture I see there is this one peice of pvc that is always there but I dont know what it is for.
381414423_7e57ab8597_o.jpg


what is that thing for?
 
It's a vent to keep water flowing. They do siphon, but only as much as the pump will return. A regular siphon will work, but it wont self start if you have to shut the pump down.
Check out the sticky in the DIY section. It will explain it better than I can.

Drilled overflows are better IMO, because they dont rely on a siphon at all.
 
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