Sump location?

[DarylMac]

I've had aquariums for most of my life. For the last 16 years I've used canister filters almost exclusively, along with HOB aqua clears that never seem to die and are great to have on hand use in case of emergency.

I have never had a sump.

I have plans to upgrade to my largest tank ever this year; 7 or 8 footer, 240+ gallons. I've been buying equipment ahead of time. I already have lights, an overflow (synergy reef 20"), pump, and a 4 foot aquarium to use as a sump.

I've read a lot, you tubed a lot, and I've decided on bean animal system. I'm familiar enough with how to design a sump, and I'm comfortable with doing the PVC plumbing myself.

Now I'm in the process of designing the stand.

Part of this must decide where to locate the sump inside the stand. The display aquarium will be as much as twice as long as my sump.

Because I am limited where I can put a tank this size part of my set-up requires that my overflow be on one end panel of the display aquarium and my returns will be at the other end (rather than on the back, which is most common I believe).

This means that I will need to run plumbing that is closer to horizontal than vertical. I'm not sure if this should be the intake or the return side? My gut tells me the intakes (bean animal style) should be the side of the system that is more vertical (in other words the sump should located closer to the overflow side so that the water falls straight into the sump).

But I have no way to know for sure.

Any advice?

 

[JK47]

A bean animal utilizes a full siphon pipe so if you intend to stick to that design, try and get the sump as close to overflows as possible. The gate valve should be mounted vertically

 

[DarylMac]

That's what I figured.

I presumed that the benefits of having the overflow pipes run vertical for most of their length, with a 45 degree elbow near the bottom to direct water under the aquarium into the sump would outweigh any drawbacks associated with having to the return plumbing almost horizontal for a few feet under the aquarium.

My limited understanding of the situation is that the return pumps biggest challenge is over coming the vertical head needed to get water back into the display. Any drag coefficient of the water running inside the pipes horizontally, or near horizontally, would be secondary to the head loss.

 

[jaws7777]

A bean animal utilizes a full siphon pipe so if you intend to stick to that design, try and get the sump as close to overflows as possible. The gate valve should be mounted vertically

Any reason the gate should be vertical vs horizontal ?

That's what I figured.

I presumed that the benefits of having the overflow pipes run vertical for most of their length, with a 45 degree elbow near the bottom to direct water under the aquarium into the sump would outweigh any drawbacks associated with having to the return plumbing almost horizontal for a few feet under the aquarium.

My limited understanding of the situation is that the return pumps biggest challenge is over coming the vertical head needed to get water back into the display. Any drag coefficient of the water running inside the pipes horizontally, or near horizontally, would be secondary to the head loss.

Looking forward to a build thread on the bean animal hint hint

 

[JK47]

Any reason the gate should be vertical vs horizontal ?



Looking forward to a build thread on the bean animal hint hint

I tried. It is finicky at best for achieving full siphon. It gets there but you have to have a larger volume sump to keep the pump from running dry while it catches up. Mounting vertically is the most efficient means of achieving full siphon in the least amount of time.

 

[DarylMac]

Thanks guys. I do intend to document the entire build, including filtration.

 

[jaws7777]

I tried. It is finicky at best for achieving full siphon. It gets there but you have to have a larger volume sump to keep the pump from running dry while it catches up. Mounting vertically is the most efficient means of achieving full siphon in the least amount of time.

Is there any truth to this... read that a slice gate is better or easy to fine tune the siphon drains vs a regular gate ? Im going to tee both siphon drains into a gate.

Sorry for highjacking op but maybe this will pretain to your build as well

 

[JK47]

Is there any truth to this... read that a slice gate is better or easy to fine tune the siphon drains vs a regular gate ? Im going to tee both siphon drains into a gate.

Sorry for highjacking op but maybe this will pretain to your build as well

I have never used a slice gate and would not use one on my own systems. They are not designed for fine tuning so I can say it could not be better than a gate valve. The gate valve is a needle and for very fine adjustments.