Sump design critique please

[the-obstacle]

Hi,

Can somebody critique my sump design for me please?

The inlet will empty straigth into water to keep the noise down then go up a wider than usual divider which has filter wool in it that I can remove to clean / replace, then overflow to a bioball chamber, then onto a noodle chanber, and then finally into the pump chamber with 2 300W heaters and a suitable pump.

Because I intend to plumb in an automatic water changer / drip system I'll plumb in an overflow at the right level to then flow into another smaller tank (which I have lying around) that will act as a planted refugium / quarantine for new fish which then has a built in overflow which goes out to the wastewater or stormwater systems in the house. This second tank will also allow me to use it as an overflow tank with a pump on a float switch if I ever move the tank to where it will be below the wastewater piping in the house.



your thoughts? the sump I'm planning to use is a 1m long tank with glass and perspex dividers. this is for a 700L tank with additional cannister filters for extra clean water.

 

[Ancient_Fish_Master]

add a filter sock in the beginning and you should be good. make sure your canisters can keep up with mechanical filtration

 

[foldem]

I really like your flood control idea, i think i'm going to steal that idea for my next set up
Scrape the bio balls since that section of the tank is going to be fully submerged, i would chuck more sponges or filter mats in the first chamber to help with some mech filtration.

 

[the-obstacle]

add a filter sock in the beginning and you should be good. make sure your canisters can keep up with mechanical filtration

The canisters can handle the whole tank without the sump but I'd like the extra filtration and the chance to overflow the drip system.

I really like your flood control idea, i think i'm going to steal that idea for my next set up
Scrape the bio balls since that section of the tank is going to be fully submerged, i would chuck more sponges or filter mats in the first chamber to help with some mech filtration.

Thanks, I was trying to figure out what to do with the spare tank I have and figured a quarantine with the same water as the main but which didn't run the risk of spreading anyhing that is being quarantined would both acclimatise the new fish as well as keeping the main tank safe. As the water can't go back up into the sump it's a one way flow which should be sweet.

So do I dump the bio balls and the dividers between the ball chamber and the noodle chamber and double the size of the noodle chamber or do I leave the dividers in place and fill the bio ball space with a ton of filter floss?

 

[foldem]

Leave the divider, instead of bio balls you can chuck more bio media in there, eg mattrix, ceramic rings etc. This is good for maintenance because you can clean one section of the sump at a time.

 

[the-obstacle]

Leave the divider, instead of bio balls you can chuck more bio media in there, eg mattrix, ceramic rings etc. This is good for maintenance because you can clean one section of the sump at a time.

Fantastic, thanks. Now to find out if the local filter bag supplier will sell them in any quantity under 50 units per order. (they're not readily available in NZ).