Hello, I plan on using this tank for my sump. Does anyone have any thoughts on the setup as far as baffles and media? I plan on using 2 full siphon 1.5" bulkheads and a single pump that should push around 2700 gph with the head height. Thanks.
Rubbermaid 100 gallon stock tank as a sump?
- Thread starter jandb
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I did this recently and didn't find many freshwater examples. This is what I came up with. The wet/dry portion is a bit noisy (nothing terrible, but the sound of running water is ever present). The sump doesn't sit in the same room from which the tank is displayed, so some noise isn't a bit deal. I went with the 150 gallon over the 100 gallon (both were the same height and the 150 was only slightly wider). I used a Laguna 4280 pump and I suspect I'm getting around 3500 GPH considering head height.
^I drilled my syphon break on the return line low enough in the tank such that the sump will fill in a power outage to above the entire lower media chamber of the wet/dry towers to help keep some of the beneficial bacteria alive. It's hard to see in the picture, but when running the water level drops low enough that the entire media portions of the wet/dry towers are no longer submerged.
Be sure to find something to keep your heaters from touching the plastic sump:
^I drilled my syphon break on the return line low enough in the tank such that the sump will fill in a power outage to above the entire lower media chamber of the wet/dry towers to help keep some of the beneficial bacteria alive. It's hard to see in the picture, but when running the water level drops low enough that the entire media portions of the wet/dry towers are no longer submerged.
Be sure to find something to keep your heaters from touching the plastic sump:
Nice effort there OSXer. I really like what you did with that. I have an external pump and am thinking about drilling it. Doesn't look like you had to do that but did you have any thoughts on that? What overflow style did you use to get that much flow?
My is a submersible pump that sits under the largest wet/dry tower. I built a small stand out of PVC to hold the tower over that location. On that tower, I also have the water exiting from the front at the lowest level rather than straight through the bottom like the others, to help avoid bubbles getting pulled into the pump. You could easily add a submersible through the already present drain on the stock tank. The stock bulkheads tend to leak sooner than later, so I replaced mine with a real bulkhead and drain plug. Instead of plugging it, I could have attached an external pump if I wanted.
My overflow is ~12"x18" IIRC. The actual drain setup is based on the "beananimal" design. Basically it's 1 full syphon, 1 durso, and 1 emergency drain, being utilized in that order.
Here's a more detailed overview:
http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx
If you don't have 3 drains available, look up a "herbie overflow" instead.
FWIW, my full syphon drain is 1.5" and once it gets humming, would drain the tank faster than the pump could fill it, hence the gate valve to regulate flow. (The shot above was before I had the gate valve adjusted to raise the water level higher, which helped quiet the water pouring into the overflow.
My is a submersible pump that sits under the largest wet/dry tower. I built a small stand out of PVC to hold the tower over that location. On that tower, I also have the water exiting from the front at the lowest level rather than straight through the bottom like the others, to help avoid bubbles getting pulled into the pump. You could easily add a submersible through the already present drain on the stock tank. The stock bulkheads tend to leak sooner than later, so I replaced mine with a real bulkhead and drain plug. Instead of plugging it, I could have attached an external pump if I wanted.
My overflow is ~12"x18" IIRC. The actual drain setup is based on the "beananimal" design. Basically it's 1 full syphon, 1 durso, and 1 emergency drain, being utilized in that order.
Here's a more detailed overview:
http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx
If you don't have 3 drains available, look up a "herbie overflow" instead.
FWIW, my full syphon drain is 1.5" and once it gets humming, would drain the tank faster than the pump could fill it, hence the gate valve to regulate flow. (The shot above was before I had the gate valve adjusted to raise the water level higher, which helped quiet the water pouring into the overflow.
Looks really good. I plan on running the bean animal too. The tank is 12' long and not drilled. I'm thinking about some sort of modified coast to coast setup (maybe 2-36" boxes). Any thoughts there? Would you do 2 smaller boxes on the back wall or try and get away with one big one using an 1.5" full siphon?
What is the pipe on the bottom right?
It's a matter of the length of the overflow and the height of the water pouring over the overflow. Unless using two shorter lengths makes it easier to hide the overflow, I'd be inclined to go with a coast to coast overflow. My tank already had a central overflow, so that's what I had to work with.
That is my return to the tank (now with only two outlets, one in each direction, instead of three:
The central overflow hides everything well:
