Sump questions

[hazler]

Hey guys, long time lurker, hardly ever posterer. It's been a long time since I've had a sump. I've acquired a nice setup for my solo Murray Cod (Australian Native), tank is 8ft x 2.5ft x 2ft - 1000L (270Gal?) Plus 4ft x 18" x 18" sump, which is where the questions are.

As I said, long time since I've had a sump, but was hoping to get a few tips/thoughts. The sump isn't really what I had in mind, but I'm trying to make do. I've attached photos for reference. Water flows in the right side of the sump into a large chamber, I want to concentrate it through jap mat/filter pads is it worth putting in another baffle or there an easier way?

After that I was thinking marine blocks and just load up on bioballs and rings etc before leaving an area for charcoal and whatever else I can throw in there before it hits the pump.

I was thinking fluidized but the bioload of the tank doesn't really demand it. Sorry for the blabbering on, hopefully it makes sense. Would really appreciate the help though ?

 

[gasser]

I’ve used sumps for years. They are great because you have room to service everything so I think your gonna love it.
now there are three main things you need to do to process your water before returning it to the tank.
usually most people do some form of mechanical filtration to remove large stuff and or even small particles before the water moves through the main biological filtration area. You can have your water go through a sponge, pinky pad what ever. Just make sure yiu have a bypass Incase that media gets totally clogged.
Then for your bio chamber you mention bioballs and marine pure blocks. I have not used the blocks in fresh water but in salt they do seem to have some denitrification benefit but fresh water it’s so easy and cheap to do large water changes that I’m not sure it’s worth it. I would consider a high surface area media and just pass all the water through it. You can do it in many ways but think how the water will come into contact with the surfaces as that’s where the bacteria lives. anything that has a large surface area will work. I’ve seen pot scrubbier, commercial media, ceramics,etc.. all work but how the water flows around them and through them is just as important. In my sump I used a k1 micro moving bed and it seems to work well for me. It’s my first time using it on a large scale. In the past I used bioballs in a wet dry configuration. For me the K1 is a lot better and stays clean. My bioballs were a mess after a few years and a pain to take out and get clean with out destroying all the bacteria on it.
I did build a smaller K1 filter that sits in my temp pond and it works really well. TS a plastic 5 gallon carboy that I put holes in around the bottom and top. I added an air stone and put marbles in the bottom to weigh it down. Then I filled it up about 2/3 with K1 and turned on the air. I also put a small dc pump to circulate water through it from the top. I know the air should pull water through it but I didn’t feel it was enough. I’ll see if I can find any pics. Not sure if one or two of these would make your life easier.
After the bio chamber I usually like to do my chemical filtration if needed like carbon etc... on mine I use some refillable cartrages filters like yiu use in an RO/DI unit. I just power it off a T from the main return pump. I also will do a polishing stage to remove any fine particles before the water returns to the tank. I have the luxury of space in my sump but yiu will just have to be creative.
Lastly as a bonus you can employ some UV sterilization if your budget allows. I just added a big one in my tank. It does seem more crystal clear than usual. Time will tell if it’s worth the investment.

 

[gasser]

Here is my biofilter I put in a temp pond where I’m holding 20 or so african cichlids.

 

[BIG-G]

This is my thoughts on the sump the way it is designed now.
The blue line would be the constant water level.
The baffle in red is totally unnecessary if you plan on adding sponge in this area, I assume it will be horizontal from top to bottom,top being the largest pore working your way to finer at the bottom.
The baffling x in purple are useless and should be removed.
The one in yellow really wouldn’t be necessary unless you use it to contain the bio media in some way.

The problem I see is that the baffling that hold the water level is short and that means that you bio media area over all is small and will not come in contact with water if you go above that blue line.

 

[BIG-G]

I think you would have more use to remove all
The baffling except the second raised to contain the sponge and the last to contain the bio you will probably have to add some egg crate or another spong underneath the last baffle to hold back your bio depending on what you go with.
The extra baffling is not necessary to me.

 

[gasser]

There is nothing preventing you from keeping a higher water level in your sump. Those lower short baffles have nothing to do with water level. Water will still flow through to the next chamber through it. The short lower one on the back side could be removed but you could also put fine filter floss on that side and a course sponge on the right side.
To determine your water level range just fill up tank and get it to the overflow where water is falling into the sump. Then add water to sump to just going over your upper baffles WITH tank off/ power out. Then turn on your return pump and see where the water level is when it’s running. Mark that as max water volume.
Your bio chamber as it sits is a flow through design. Just filling with lots of media for the water to flow through would work. If you want wet dry or moving media you’d have to change how the water flows through it.
Option two is have the water come from the overflow to the center bio chamber and pass through a DIY biotower made from a sterilite multi drawer container. First drawer make a prefilter then fill rest with bio media of choice. This will be very effecient. Then fill rest of space around and under it with more bio media.
Then water will flow both directions if you use two return pumps, one on each side. Nice thing about this setup is redundancy and good wet dry filtration which is fairly effecient and good even flow over all media.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Nice looking cod. Im a fan of a simpler sump myself. And so would start by removing some baffles like the others suggested.

 

[BIG-G]

There is nothing preventing you from keeping a higher water level in your sump. Those lower short baffles have nothing to do with water level. Water will still flow through to the next chamber through it. The short lower one on the back side could be removed but you could also put fine filter floss on that side and a course sponge on the right side.
To determine your water level range just fill up tank and get it to the overflow where water is falling into the sump. Then add water to sump to just going over your upper baffles WITH tank off/ power out. Then turn on your return pump and see where the water level is when it’s running. Mark that as max water volume.
Your bio chamber as it sits is a flow through design. Just filling with lots of media for the water to flow through would work. If you want wet dry or moving media you’d have to change how the water flows through it.
Option two is have the water come from the overflow to the center bio chamber and pass through a DIY biotower made from a sterilite multi drawer container. First drawer make a prefilter then fill rest with bio media of choice. This will be very effecient. Then fill rest of space around and under it with more bio media.
Then water will flow both directions if you use two return pumps, one on each side. Nice thing about this setup is redundancy and good wet dry filtration which is fairly effecient and good even flow over all media.

I see what you’re saying.
You could raise the water in the sump. But that just means that the area from the top of the short baffling to the bottom would be dead.
Unless he were to move the drain to the from the tank to the center and add reruns to both sides.
I see a lot of potential stagnant areas with it the way it sits.
The bio chamber at the bottom below the baffling will get minimal flow.
I think for a freshwater system you just do not need all these different chambers.
Just a simple pass though will work much more effectively.
The blue line is not meant to represent the water level only to show that even with the sump drained that much water would remain.

 

[BIG-G]

The problem I see is that the baffling that hold the water level is short and that means that you bio media area over all is small and will not come in contact with water if you go above that blue line.

This is in accurate and not what I meant to convey.
I meant that the areas above this line will have the potential water flow and the areas below this line because of the baffling may not see as much flow leading to possible stagnant areas or areas where the biomedia may not come in contact with as much water.

 

[gasser]

I see what you’re saying.
You could raise the water in the sump. But that just means that the area from the top of the short baffling to the bottom would be dead.
Unless he were to move the drain to the from the tank to the center and add reruns to both sides.
I see a lot of potential stagnant areas with it the way it sits.
The bio chamber at the bottom below the baffling will get minimal flow.
I think for a freshwater system you just do not need all these different chambers.
Just a simple pass though will work much more effectively.
The blue line is not meant to represent the water level only to show that even with the sump drained that much water would remain.

I don’t disagree but depending on the turnover rate I really don’t feel that area would be stagnant. No way to avoid mixing and you have tons of new water entering this chamber continuously. Plus by maximizing your sump volume it adds to the total system water volume.
He could increase the height of that lower first baffle but not really necessary IMO.
That’s a big sump with lots of good possibilities but would be nice to figure a way to use it as is to minimize work.