sump design

[superluke]

hey guys i am hopefully getting a 260 gallon tank that will be drilled so i would like to have a sump it will be my first sump ever so want to check my design over with you guys i will have filter socks in the first section then in the mid section i am not sure whether to just fill it with ceramic rings or do a moving filter with k1 media and then in the final section i will have a pump and heaters.

 

[guano]

I don't have any experience with k1 so I can't help you there. If you keep the the baffles, you may want to raise the filter socks. If you go with just ceramic media, I would ditch the baffles and have the water level a little lower so you don't have to raise the socks. I like to keep things as simple as possible. The pic is kind of hard to read, can post another one?

 

[loureyes]

Very similar to what I have I have bio balls and a basket full of lava rock in mine [video=youtube_share;NXI0LkXwgZo]http://youtu.be/NXI0LkXwgZo[/video]

 

[Gill Blue]

well you dont need the first or second baffle that will give you more room for media i dont have any experience with the moving media but id expect having the water flowing over the top after that section will result in a lot of the media flowing over with it so youd end up with a lot of it in the pump section maybe lifting that one up a bit and putting a screen of some sort at the bottom would be better i used eggcrate to keep my ceramic media from underflowing the baffle you also would want especially for a moving bed filter to have a baffle after that section to keep the water level up if you go with the flow under the baffle instead of over it although I suppose you could just screen the top of that baffle to prevent the media flowing out but it may collect in front of the screen.

 

[superluke]

Yeah I could but some egg crate at the top to stop any media escaping and anyone got any idea of the k1 is better than ceramic rings?? Even if I use ceramic rings I would still put a couple of air stones to have very high oxygen levels in it


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[Tannim]

If you keep your baffles the way they are you are going to have a bad over flow if you lose power. Remember you need to have enough extra area for water to store if you lose power or your pump goes out if not then you are going to be cleaning up a bad mess. I would say lower the baffles. Plus you can use bioballs with out them being in a wet dry setup.

 

[Gill Blue]

If you keep your baffles the way they are you are going to have a bad over flow if you lose power. Remember you need to have enough extra area for water to store if you lose power or your pump goes out if not then you are going to be cleaning up a bad mess. I would say lower the baffles. Plus you can use bioballs with out them being in a wet dry setup.

not if he's smart about it.
starting with an empty tank & empty sump. fill the tank. fill the sump through the tank. when the sump is full (or full enough), stop filling. the sump is full, and the tank is primed to overflow into the sump.no power, no problem.
as long as the first baffle is removed, or doesn't quite reach the top of the tank, the others are fine.
here's mine when running. if the power quits, the water level goes up 1.5 to 2 inches leaving me with an inch if insurance. with only 1" between the top of the tank and the highest baffle I still have enough room that it will keep flowing even with a completely blocked chamber so I'll never have a pump flood either.

 

[superluke]

anyone else?

 

[David R]

Skip the baffles altogether and just put the ceramic rings in bags?

I'd agree about the last compartment not being big enough too, regardless of how you fill it up. You need to work out roughly how much water will flow back into the sump [skim] when the power switches off, basically the footprint of your tank multiplied by about an inch depth (maybe more depending on the design of your overflow and returns) and make sure that last compartment has enough spare volume with the pump running to hold that water. You have only allowed ~10x6x??" depending on how wide your sump is and how much water your pump needs to be in, which sounds nowhere near enough for a 260g tank to me.

Also agree with whoever suggested raising the socks up, you'll find they take a lot longer to clog if they're out of the water so gravity can do its thing and help pull the water through.

You're on the right track though, keep researching and look at as many different designs as possible. Here is the sump I used on my old 1400L tank, the one for my next tank will be similar. I used a mix of ceramic noodles [submerged] and bioballs [above water level] for the media in the central compartment. The pipe on the end was going to be for an auto water changer that never got set up.

 

[wvance]

Here's one that I just built for my 90.