really REALLY big SUMP BUILD!!!

[cichlasomaphobe]

Hi all, the fish room is progressing and getting to the part to build a couple (okay, 4) REALLY BIG SUMPS. Two can be just 100-150 gallon, the first one to build must be ~ 300 gallons and the fourth, well, you know...Bigger won't really cost more. See my gallery for pics of the fish room. I am not married or cohabitating as you can plainly see in the pics and my GF is at least as nuts as I am.
Plan is to use stock watering troughs as the basis, install dividers for media (scale is XL-XXXL here, "media" is landscape lava rock gravel, limestone to buffer PH up, polyester floss, coarse foams etc), and construct a rather large dripchamber (24" X 36"-ish) in each for the inbound water to fall and release gasses. Just trying to convey the scale in mind. I am going for highly aerobic bacteria and polished water rather than a torrential flow of whitewater so a return pump is not going to cost 50$ a month to run My biggest questions are about various media to use (think frugally here), the drip chamber construction, divider installation etc.
I really may be overthinking all this, but your opinions. experience and anything remotely constructive will be appreciated. If you are shy, PM.
I saw a drip/spray/circulate filter at Segrest Farms in Tampa years ago, if I recall correctly, it was about 6 feet by 50 feet of SUMP final water level was about 12", it ran a lot of their freshwater room. So, relatively speaking, I am perfectly sane, this is just a small hobbyist tinkering project. Right? Please validate my sanity. And add your 2 cents. Thanks MFK-er's!!!

 

[mrunlucky07]

About the cheapest media for large scale is poly strapping. Its basically the same as springflow. On ebay it can be found very cheap sometimes. I have picked up a couple rolls for under $20 with shipping. A 10,000' 1/2" wide or 20,000ft 1/4" wide (my preference) roll will fill 55 gallons tightly packed or about 100gallons loosely packed if you want more shear/splash. It also cleans extremly easily.

http://cgi.ebay.com/UNLINE-POLY-STR...in_0?hash=item3ef8a61fa5&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Poly strapping

 

[cichlasomaphobe]

Great suggestion! I wonder if it could be negatively charged to attract more dirt...I'll definitely try strapping in a chamber or two.
Also, it was suggested to dedicate one of these sumps and accompanying tanks to a soft water/low PH by using peat moss/coconut husk in the sump. Also, a great place to keep extra driftwood.
Thanks for the great idea!

 

[Pharaoh]

What size tanks are you running these sumps on? As tanks get larger, you can get away with smaller sumps that are just as effective as overdoing it.

1. I like scrubbies, but there might be better options with suxh a large area
2. For drip plate, use the plastic pegboard found at Lowes
3. For dividers, I use light diffuser (eggcrate), but for solid dividers, acrylic would work

 

[cichlasomaphobe]

Hi Pharaoh, the biggest sump is going on 6 each 120's (96l x 12h x 24d), each partitioned into 6 compartments, so 720 gallons there. The next task is 6 each 50 gallon compartmented acrylics, so 300 gallons there. Other tanks are 400 gal, 300 gal, a trio of 240's. Several racks etc etc.
I have followed the 25% sump-to-tank ratio, and before that, the standard of 15-20% and originally even the 10% rule quoted by wet-dry manufacturers in the late eighties. Soooo, just taking it to another level with low flow (2 to 5 turns per hour) and high ratio of sump to tank. I tried this before with stellar results, just two conditions-gotta have room and gotta be heating the air not water, a tank heater on 600 gallons is expensive, a roomfull of setups like this would be cost prohibitive.
The plastic pegboard and the light diffuser materials are great! Thanks for pointing it out..

 

[Pharaoh]

The main benefit that you are going to see is the added water volume leading to a bit less fluctuation in parameters.

I'm running about 500G on 100 gallon sump and honestly, I would run a lot more on it if I had the space. I like your thoughts, just don't waste a bunch of space on overkill unless you really want to. more space = more tanks = more fish.