Spare 10, Make A Sump?

[Amaroq]

I have a spare 10 gallon and ive be thinking of making it a sump for my 55 gallon because i plan on having a few fish and 10 extra gallons would be usefull, What im wondering is how would i do at all? Im thinking id be making to input PVC pipes on either side of the 55 and make them connect into on pipe then have go down and pour into the 10, give them a few drip plates to pour through then have a bunch of mech filtering then a BUNCH of bio-balls for bio then maybe a little plant section and the out put pipe going back up and pouring it back into the middle of the tank. How does that sound? Ill try and make a bit of a diagram on paint for you guys. Also how strong of a pump would i need? Whats the recommended turn over for filtering through a sump?

Thanks,
Spencer

 

[Bderick67]

Remember your sump has to be able to hold all the overflow water when the power is shut off. A 2" drop of your water levelin the 55g tank is about 5 gallons of water, which is half the capacity of your proposed sump.

 

[Amaroq]

Wouldnt that just mean more oxygen for my media till i fill it up more?

 

[Bderick67]

Wouldnt that just mean more oxygen for my media till i fill it up more?

What it means is you will need to design it so that you don't end up with water all over your floor. Commericially built wet/dry are designed so the media is not submerged in the water. The concerns with the water level in the sump is that it don't go low enough to run the pump dry and if the power is off that it don't overflow.

 

[Amaroq]

I was thinking of adding a tower anyways to put into the 10 gallon and use that for my media then just use the 10 gallon as a plant area/heater hider what do you think of that? would that help at all with the water level? and for the tower it would be a continues levels of media then drip plate then media then drip plate until it gets to 10 gallon.

Ill have to think about how to make sure it doesnt overflow, the only way i could of would be to have a it run on batteries or have a generator and a generator seems a little over the top to me for just one system but i guess i could plug all my filters into it as well.

Spencer

 

[Bderick67]

Not a bad plan but if power goes out you don't want your bio media to dry out. The beneficial bacteria needs water to stay alive. Best if you design with the bio media inside the tank and that it will become submerged if power fails. You could however have the mechanical media in the "tower".

 

[Amaroq]

Good idea but if the power goes out wont the input pipes keep sucking water and pouring it into the 10 gallon because they'll be run from gravity and it will just flood right? WAIT i have any idea LOL just drill a hole at some point on the input put pipe so when it gets to a certain level it will suck in a bubble of air and break the suction right? Im positive some ones thought of that before but i cant recall reading it somewhere.

Spencer

 

[Bderick67]

Look through the DIY forum the is a couple of overflow designs that you could go with. Trick is to have is stop overflowing from the 55g tank before it completely fills the 10 gallon sump.

 

[Amaroq]

Ok so i drew up a design of my sump on paint, here it is.

Yes i do relize i didnt put a output pipe going back up i had forgotten about it until after i saved it and im to lazy to fix it LOL also i just caught my mistake with the plants, there both gonna be java fern not java moss and java fern. Does this look like a good idea?

Spencer