Sump help

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T

thacarter546

Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2008
251
17
18
Midwest
Okay, so i read up on the diy pipe overflow, and im feelin pretty confident i can figure that out. I am getting read to try my first ever sump. The major goal of this project is to get the heater out of my main tank so my catfish and pleco dont burn themselves anymore and to provide more mechanical filtration especially for floating plant material and big chunks of stuff.

Tank is an overstocked low tech planted 55g. Current filtration is an aquatech 30-60 Marineland Penguin 350 and a Rena Filstar XP3. I think that should handle most of my filtration. This is just to get the heater out of the tank and itd be nice to inject my diy co2 into the pump output.

Anyway onto my two major questions.

Has anyone used the harbor freight pumps in their sump? This is a major budget project and I got the Pacific Hydrostar 922 gph pond pump for under $40 this pump is waaay too strong for my intentions, but I can use the bypass to send water back through the sump right? It has a ceramic shaft and sees pretty sturdy. I went in there for the 350 gph pump and the had this or the 264gph that was only rated to a 6 ft head height, so im assuming id only get 100 or so gph at the 5 foot head height I need? I can get the rio pumps at a good price would they be a better pump?

Second question was where in the world do you gus fnd those scrubbies? I need cheap media ideas. There was also a porous rock mentioned that I cannot for the life of me remember.

Any other advice for a first timer is appreciated!
 
You can buy in-line heaters that you fit between the external and the spray bar, these worked for numerous years for me and keep the heater out of the tank.

If the rock your thinking of is what im thinking of its called lava rock, and its super pourus. although ive never used the rock or scrubbies or the rock ive heard that scrubbies are so much better beacuse they dont clog as easily, they have a larger surface area and more importantly, are cheap!

Hope that answers a couple of questions,
Matt
 
Skip the Harbor Freight pump and get a Rio. I've heard good things about the Rio pumps AND more importantly, their low electric consumption. The HF pump is probably not going to last as long and will probably use much more power. Then your savings are gone.

Yes, you can bypass back into the sump. To some extent you can restrict a pump's outflow without hurting it. If it sounds unhappy, then you should bypass some of the water. I'm doing that with a large pump and it is much happier now. Put a bypass valve in just in case.

Someone on here has a message on the bottom of their post that says to PM them about scrubbies.

Porous rock candidates include lava rock and factory made things like Seachem Matrix. Someone may have mentioned something else, of course. Lava rock makes an excellent nitrate reducer.

Also, I really recommend you try to find a float switch that fits your budget. Look next to the sump pumps at the home improvement stores. If you have one, your pump can never run dry and be killed.
 
Wow thank you guys for all the help. I looked into the inline heaters from hydor. I kinda wanted a project to keep me busy that wasnt expensive lol, so I chose this route.

I looked at lava rock I saw someone suggest another rock too, but I cant remember it Im gonna price lava rock and that may be the route I go with. Nitrate reducer would be nice and hopefully cut down in water changes. I have to do them all by bucket right now.

The pump from rio was really small and was rated in the 200ish gph range? the pump from HF seems to be built really nicely compared to the other pumps ive looked at, plus its 922 gph compared to 100-250 gph from other pumps in my price range. The Rios I can get from like 20-40 bucks at the LFS I paid 40 for the HF pump.
 
you can do a DIY inline heated using an existing heater and a section of 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe with a couple tees and a threaded cap. if that is the olnly reason your adding a sump. if you still go ahead with the sump look up Zennzzo on here. or you can try a dollar store and you might get lucky any place around me doesn't stock them anymore but it seams they are still pretty common in the US. they are cheap you can get 8-10 for a buck. I have gone to using Quilt batting personally and have been using it only for about 2 months. it was really cheap I added it to my filters and a giant bag only cost me $6 maybe scrubbies are better but sofar I cant say anything negative about the batting. if you go this route read the packaging make sure there is no anti bacterial or antifungal applications to it. I like it cause rather than cleaning it I will just romove some of it each time and chuck it. mix in some fresh stuff and it will self sead. also it makes it easy to sead the bacteria into several other tanks. good luck
 
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