Sump Design

[groovylime]

Ahh, gotcha!!

Another thing I'd add is to not take any of the baffles all the way to top of the sump for the same basic reason. You don't want water to ever overflow the sump if there is blockage. With a baffle that goes to the top, that is a ,albeit a very slim, possibility.

Also, I would remove the first baffle of the last series of baffles. The way you have it drawn now, the water will enter through the top. I'm going to make an assumption as outlined below that you want the water to leave the second bio chamber from the top. If that assumption is correct, the water will flow across the top of the middle 18" chamber and the water in the bottom will become kind of stagnant as it will flow from top to top. If you remove that first baffle in the last series, and seal the last baffle of the second bio chamber to the bottom, the water will flow from the top of the last/second bio chamber to the bottom of the first open baffle that creates the return pump chamber. This should be illustrated well enough in my revised picture of your sump, but I'm confusing myself writing this. Hope it makes sense.

Lastly, and I didn't catch this the first time, I reattached your picture again. The last baffle for the second bio chamber has to be sealed to the bottom of the tank otherwise the water will not flow through it as I originally drew the water path. The water will flow to the bottom of the first bio chamber and the laterally out the bottom of the second chamber without passing over the media. Water will take the path of least resistance.

Oh, wait, one more thing. Make the last baffle in the pump return chamber be just as tall as it needs to be for the return pump's minimum water depth. That way, you run the least risk of running that chamber dry.

***** 5 Stars for the most helpful answer!

 

[brookers]

You guys should really do your research first. Submerged ceramic media is superior to water dripping over conventional plastic media. Besides, ceramic media will give you more surface area than you will ever need. Just because you expose it to more oxygen doesn't mean you will have more bacteria. Bacteria will be equal to your bioload.

Not only that, you can run a completely silent sump. There is no need to have the sound of water falling in your sump.

Somebody should tell these guys they don't know what they're doing right?

who mentioned plastic media ? i did'nt. and neither did you in your previous post.
in the pic of my sump you can see that my t tower is full of a***rok which is pieces of porous ceramic, this acts in the same way as live rock used in marine aquariums. this coupled with 30% wc each week = 2mg/L of no3. on a salifert test kit and i feed quite heavy twice a day !
wet/dry not only have the benifit of oxygen saturation but they have better gas exchange capabilities ( why do you think most reefers use them ) and then there's maintainance, submerged is going to clog easier even if you put wool etc in front.
ive tried both ways and in my opinion wet/dry is far more efficient.

anyway lets not spoil this guys thread .

 

[ozzyboo]

Thanks for all the replies,this has generated more interest than I thought it would,and I am more than happy for people to discuss the merits of different types of system as I have learnt something's from it.
Firstly let me explain that I had pretty much already decided on the media being submerged,if that is more or less effective I am not sure,mainly because this tank will be in my living room and therefor has to be silent or as close to as is possible.
Having run eheim canisters for years I am quite happy that the type of media being used will function well in a fully submerged environment.I may well loose some of the benefits of W/D ie gas exchange and oxygenation as has been pointed out but I dont believe either of these will be a significant problem,where as noise may be as my wife suffers from TN and any long term noise even if fairly low level can set this off. Hence the requirment for silent.

Another thing I'd add is to not take any of the baffles all the way to top of the sump for the same basic reason. You don't want water to ever overflow the sump if there is blockage. With a baffle that goes to the top, that is a ,albeit a very slim, possibility

That is something I had not considered I dont see any reason why I could not reduce the height at the top of the baffles by an 1-2".

Also, I would remove the first baffle of the last series of baffles. The way you have it drawn now, the water will enter through the top. I'm going to make an assumption as outlined below that you want the water to leave the second bio chamber from the top. If that assumption is correct, the water will flow across the top of the middle 18" chamber and the water in the bottom will become kind of stagnant as it will flow from top to top. If you remove that first baffle in the last series, and seal the last baffle of the second bio chamber to the bottom, the water will flow from the top of the last/second bio chamber to the bottom of the first open baffle that creates the return pump chamber. This should be illustrated well enough in my revised picture of your sump, but I'm confusing myself writing this. Hope it makes sense

That was the original plan as I was not sure exactly what to do with the spare 18" and had thought that a DSB would be an idea or a refugium and I had I gone with the DSB I felt the last thing I wanted was the water entering at the bottom of the section,but thats no biggie to change once I get a final design.Also in the drawing the last baffle in the media section is ment to be sealed to the base the line is just very faint for some reason.

One thing I did wnat to ask is re the baffle for the pump chamber,you say to shorten it but I would have though the more water the less chance of running dry,could you possibbly explain a bit more.But that section may need to be altered as there will be a bulkhead in there connected to main drain to allow for auto water change system to remove excess water,as my understanding is that the pump chmaber is the place for that to be also it would act as an emergency drain.
Just to touch on something someone said earlier re no baffles,the only reason I put the baffles in was to ensure that the water would be directed through the media giving the maximum contact time,and i noticed form the pictures of the huge sumps posted that they just rely on thehwater just flowing through a chamber with lots of media would that work as well with a much reduced amount of bio media?
Also an air stone or two under trhe media ceratinly would not do any harm and would be very easy to incorperate and with the bubbles trying to force up with the water forcing down should allow for resonable saturation in a similar way that a CO2 reactor works I suppose.
Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions,but if this were your sump what would you use the spare 18" for.