sizing questions

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
T

tigermax

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2005
11
0
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vancouver, b.c.
I have a 180g not set up yet. I was thinking about making a sump for it. I want to keep my Clown Knife in it, currently he is about 18" long.

1. How big of a sump do I need?
2. What pump size gph do I need?
3. How large does the overflow box need to be?
 
Welcome to MFK!!!

It takes 2.2 gallons of bio-balls to filter 100 gallons (1.5" balls with a surface area of 160 sq/ft/gal). So, you'd need a bio-chamber that can hold about 4-4.5 gallons of bio-balls. A single 1" drain can handle a flow of up to 600 gph. Which is fine for a 180. The pump will have to have an output of 900 to 1000gph to be able to have an actual circulation flow of 600gph at a 4-5ft head (the height between your pump outlet and the return spout in the tank).
 
id sa at least u wanna ctlcle your tank twice er hour so u need at least a pump of 360 gph and a over flow to match that
 
I'm just building a sump for a 220g tank, I'm aiming for flow capacity of 3-4 times the tank volume.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14016

But this tank will probably house just the one fish, and will have LOTS of bio filtration and a double pass through a fluidised bed filter, so it should be quite efficient I'm hoping! If the tank was more crowded I might look at going a little higher in flow rate.

I've used a 3 foot tank for this sump. Main reason was because I found the tank for free! If I had to build it from scratch and had access to any size tank for the sump I probably would have gone slightly larger so that it will hold more when it syphons back into the sump from the main tank. I just have to make sure with this one I put syphon breaks at the right height to stop the sump overflowing ;)

I will be probably be using a 5900lph pump(too lazy to convert to gallons sorry), this should give me the flow rate I need at the head height, and also run a fluidised bed filter which will recirculate back into the sump. :thumbsup:
 
Oddball said:
about 1500 gph. A little overkill for a 220gal.
Click to expand...

Yeah but about 1500lph of that will recirculating back into the sump through FBF filter. Plus I'm expecting to lose probably 500-1000 lph in head? I figure after all that, plus little bit extra to be sure it should work out pretty well?

Again this is all theory at the moment, it will be interesting to see how it will perform?! :D
 
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