Sump Parts/Design?

[duanes]

I am also not, a turtle keeper, but did years ago, and I prefer refugiums for my tanks, and if I kept turtles today, would surely use one.

Refugiums make use of and help break down excess nutrients, which can be odiferous, and with turtles excess nutrient production, this could be important. And because turtles tend to uproot, eat, and otherwise destry plants, a refugium offers a safe place to grow them.
It also provides a place for other animals the turtle would eat, to help in the breakdown some of those nutrients, and the extra food that escapes the turtles normal feeding.

The shrimp and snails below are from the refugium above, and occasionally overflow into the tank where they are eaten by the fish (in your case turtles).


As you can see, I believe refugiums are just as important as regular filtration, so I have separate refugium tanks, that to me, are also interesting. I even raise feeder fish in them, that eat excess food that overflows, the swordtails below are from the refugium in my first pic o the post.

 

[Oughtsix]

With the design out of the way, I was curious what I should looking at GPH wise and manufacturer wise for the return pump. I was thinking in the realm of 700-800gph but I wasn't sure if this was too much.

700-800gph may be perfect for a turtle but it seems kind of small to me. If it were me I would go for a Jebao DCP 6500 (1750gph) or DCP 8000 pump (2100gph) pump. If there is too much flow you can just use the supplied pump controller to cut the flow back... way back if you need to. If you buy too big of a controllable DC pump you can always cut it back if you have too much flow but if you buy too small of a pump your only option is to buy a large pump if you need more flow.

https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-DCP-6500-Sine-Water-Return/dp/B01MQQZC67?th=1
(I am running a DCP-6500 in the sump of my little 35g hex planted tank)

Even a high powered AC pump can be easily and safely flow restricted with just a valve on the output side of the pump.

 

[Ulu]

Thats not entirely true. Any sized pipe can be silent... just need to remove air via a gate or ball valve.

Yes, you are correct; but essentially what you saying is that you turn your flow way down until the pipe can fill up fast enough, and it gets quiet.

Bigger, smoother, straighter pipe = more flow.

 

[Ulu]

As a side note, I was able to build a very silent Sump System that had a 1 inch drain and a 3/4 inch return pipe, without using the valves. I was able to optimize that system by tuning my spray bar flow, and having a siphon pipe which always could flow enough water to keep the standpipe drain submerged.

I was able to do the same using hoses.

But by far the easiest way is to have high-quality valves on your system so you can tune it to be quiet and yet have high reserve capacity.

And you should have valves for the sake of convenience in plumbing & maintenance.

Having a clear overflow allows you to see the airflow in action and definitely helps when you're tuning the sump to be quiet.

But a big downside is that clear pipe will grow algae easily and small clear pipe will just plug up too quickly. I don't have any clear pipe smaller than 1.5 in.

 

[jaws7777]

Yes, you are correct; but essentially what you saying is that you turn your flow way down until the pipe can fill up fast enough, and it gets quiet.

Bigger, smoother, straighter pipe = more flow.

Nope remove air from the lines and water moves faster. Its the essential principle in herbie and bean animal drain methods.

You'll notice on the chart that water under pressure or at full siphon operates at a higher gph.

By adding a gate/ball your not turning gph down... its going to increase

 

[Backfromthedead]

1.5" drains on a 75 would be overkill imo. The single 1" drain should work fine.

I am a proponent of some kind of emergency drain though. Op should consider incorporating one into the setup.

 

[Ulu]

Nope remove air from the lines and water moves faster. Its the essential principle in herbie and bean animal drain methods.

You'll notice on the chart that water under pressure or at full siphon operates at a higher gph.

By adding a gate/ball your not turning gph down... its going to increase

As long as you can keep that pipe full you don't need a valve at all to make it silent.

The valve is just a convenient way to create a quiet siphon. Adding a valve to any plumbing will generally reduce max flow slightly and add a little turbulence, even wide open.

 

[jaws7777]

As long as you can keep that pipe full you don't need a valve at all to make it silent.

The valve is just a convenient way to create a quiet siphon. Adding a valve to any plumbing will generally reduce max flow slightly and add a little turbulence, even wide open.

Thats completely incorrect. Search bean animal/herbie drains. Running a full siphon pipe would REDUCE turbulence created from air running through the plumbing.

The flow required to keep the pipe "full" would be pretty damn high especially 1.5 inches lol. Ive run both set ups and can say from 1st hand experience there is no way a gravity fed line is moving the same gph a full siphon line will.

Agree with the emergency drain... its essential

 

[Ulu]

I wasn't speaking of a 1.5" pipe or any specific pipe, but a generalized pipe.

Of course reducing turbulence will improve flow.

In a balanced system the full siphon pipe doesn't need a valve to be quiet.
The throttled drain handles whatever the full siphon does not.
The emergency drain just needs a trickle from a bleed hole or bleed valve.

I use larger pipe than normal and combine the siphon and throttled drain into one.
It's not noisy because the sump is outdoors.
My emergency is larger also.

This luxury costs me little since the whole system is only 200g.
If building a 2000g system the plumbing costs are a big deal.

 

[duanes]

Just a side note, I drill all tanks, to have 1.5" drains, be they 150 gal, or a 45 gal, or even as small as 20 gallons, its the diameter of my glass drill bit, and I like consistency.

above a 45gal high (on the left (my quarantine tank)), drilled to flow into a 20 long (fry tank) to flow to sump.
Beside the drill bit, I like 1.5" because it is harder to plug up than smaller diameter pipes, but even these can get plugged so need regular brushing out. Snails, plants, dead fish, gunk, anything can plug up a line

I also like to carve weirs out of these 1.5" sanitary traps.

The 1/2" pipes influents all have ball valves to regulate flow to each, and if needed provide the ability to isolate a tank from the line of other tanks.