Sump info!? New to sumps.

[GrantA94]

I am picking up my new tank on monday!!
Its a 32" cube with a built in sump. I dont think it comes with a pump or any media so i am curious as to what rating of pump i will need. What the best media is etc? I have tried searching, but all i seem to get is saltwater sumps. The tank will be stocked with SA cichlids.

The tank has two holes in the back, obviously inlet and outlet for the sump. I have read this is the best option as it is less likely to cause a leak in the event of a power cut. Can someone explain this to me? Seems like the sump would just overflow if nothing is pumping the water out of the sump?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[West1]

Stickys, Aquarium Filter 101...

Wet Dry (sump) System


"This is really a lot simpler than it looks and works amazingly well within certain limitations. Water is skimmed off of the surface of the aquarium and then siphoned out of the tank and down to a water reservoir (sump). A return pump keeps the water level in the sump below a set level and the incoming water from the tank is filtered by a set of washable filter pads (Mechanical) and then trickles over bio-media. (Material designed with a huge surface area for its size as a home for BB.) This constitutes the bio-filtration portion of the filter. You might assume that because the sump is a lot smaller than the original tank that there wouldn’t be enough BB to properly filter the water. The truth is that the sump has a FAR greater biological capacity than the aquarium gravel bed. The huge surface area of the bio media combined with the massive amount of oxygen available in the air makes the wet/dry system the best biological filtration available. They have two deficiencies however. Because the system is gravity fed there is a limit on how fine you can go on mechanical media. This is a personal choice however because while a wet/dry may not polish the water the way a DE or pressure filter would it still does a good job of cleaning the water because of the volume of water moved. The other problem with them is that it’s difficult to create flow patterns in the tank and most of the accumulation of debris on the bottom of the tank is untouched. The first problem is addressed with the addition of power heads (small submerged pumps that move a lot of water around.) Gravel vacuuming takes care of mulm build up."

Use the search Engine or the mouse to click on the next few pages. You should get a few understandings w/pics of how a sump works/set up

 

[GrantA94]

Thankyou. Never even occured to look at the stickies. Im on my phone so they dont come up at the top. Thankyou.

From what i understand. The pipe runs to just under the water surface. So that when the water level drops below the pipe, the flow to the sump stops. I really though it was more complex than this?

 

[GrantA94]

I am confused?
what happens if the tank loses volume due to evaporation, and/or w/c's? won't this cause the sump to stop filtering? i suspect the pump will just extract whatever water is still in the sump, causing the water to rise again, but wont the rate slow, or speed up to to changes in water volume?

 

[West1]

The water level in the main tank is set due to the height of the overflow. The sump level is where it will drop due to evaporation. In most places, water does not evaporate that fast. Minor ways to fight back is adding some type of cover over the Sump, I use a acrylic sheet chopped up into 3 pcs w/some minor cut outs so I can cover the sump and the return will not interfere with it.

Here is Los Angeles, I can go probably a month n a half before my Sump level would be an issue (I do weekly water changes so Im only guessing Lol).

Another factor is the type of Sump you have. One with chambers or an open tank. Another thing you might want to look into is Power Outages and how to prevent the back flow of a Sump... usually a hole at/under the waterlevel of the return line will do it. Im sure there is more out there but thats how I have mine done