Sump design question

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm trying to learn about sumps myself and was wondering why you wouldn't do a simple 4 chamber sump and pipe the 2 intakes into the same spot. I don't really have any knowledge on the subject but would think that by making your sump this way would be easier since your design is essentially 2 sumps with a shared return, also I would think your design creates more maintenance since you have to do everything twice
 
That is a good point.
I am not really sure which is better, but I can see your way being simpler.
 
that is a good point but I was thinking he can have 2 pumps in the 4th chamber and still cut back to 1 of each chamber, just double the size of each chamber to maintain capacity
 
bbortko;4264256; said:
that is a good point but I was thinking he can have 2 pumps in the 4th chamber and still cut back to 1 of each chamber, just double the size of each chamber to maintain capacity
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That sounds like a better plan, I guess I was just hung up on having the overflow pipes as short as possible.

LoganBlade;4264236; said:
the 2 pumps is better. if one goes you still have a back up going getting some filtration.
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I definitely like the idea of having two pumps for that reason specifically.

I have asked this before, but I'll ask again. Do you think a 55, 75, or 90 gallon is an appropriate size for the filter? I will be pumping 33 gallons a minute (or 2000GPH), which seems like a lot :headbang2
 
I have redesigned the sump.
Let me know what you think.
sump3 with polishing- front.jpg
  • 1 - Water flows from two overflows into section "1", filter socks on both inputs.
  • 2 - Water flows down through section "2" which has some filter pads and Ceramic rings for mechanical.
  • 3 - Water then flows up through section "3" which will contain 10-11 Liters of Eheim Substrate Pro + scrubbies to fill in.
  • 4 - Now the water will overflow into section "4" which has polish pads and some of the water will drip through that pads into section "5", the rest will overflow into section "5".
  • 5 - Two return pumps.


The idea on section "4" is to give me more polished water, but also allow the water to reach the pumps if the pads get clogged. Or is that just getting too fancy? :)

I can eliminate section "4" all together and make sections "1-3" larger.

Fairly basic design.
 
I see you have gone away from the center pump design and I think that is a good remove. I tried a design like that a few months back and it worked OK but was no what I would call ideal. As far as 1 pump ot 2, go with 2 like in you current design. The biggest benefit with 2 pumps is that if 1 goes bad, you still have water flowing. In your design, I think the water needs to exit the first chamber through the bottom and then rise up through the next chamber. The way it is currently, when you filter socks overflow, the water is going to go straight into the 2nd chamber creating a dead zone in the bottom of the first chamber. Doing this will mean reworking everything but I thinks its needed......
 
I would leave the number of chambers as is, you can always have 2 duplicate chambers if you wanted to eliminate the media in 1 of the chambers.
 
Something more like this. You can see where the design forces the water to fall through each chamber and then rise again so it will fall through the next chamber. There are no dead spots this way and you are controlling the path of the water. Make sure the higher dividing walls do not go all the way to the top of the sump. You want to leave an inch or so in case of an overflow/blockage. Any wet/dry filter media you will want in the very last chamber so the filter media stays wet but not submerged.

Generic Sump.jpg
 
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