Sump? What?

[Carefree_Dude]

Alright, I just purchased a 210 gallon aquarium. Many people have told me the best thing for filtration is to build a sump. I've looked online, and everything i've seen has been confusing.

From what i've gathered, water rises into an overflow, which lets the water go down to the sump under the tank. Then, somehow down in the sump the water is filtered, and then sent back into the tank. The parts I don't understand;

How does an overflow work?

How do I get the water to be filtered once in the sump?

How big of a sump setup do I need for my aquarium?

Whats with taking the water through all these weird routes, and such?

what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

what is a protein skimmer?

How do I get the water back into the tank?

What kind of heater do I need to put in this sump that will do a good job of heating my tank?

Is there any way to just buy one of these "sumps"?

What benefits does it have over a canister?




I'm doing a freshwater setup, and most information i've seen is for reef tanks. Tomorrow i'm going on a 200 mile drive to an aquarium store for some help, but i'd like to get some unbias information from fellow fish fanatics. Before now, all I have ever used are power filters, and even canisters seem to confuse me.

 

[watercrawl]

Protein skimmer is for salt water. Might be used in some rare instances for FW, but not typically

General rule of thumb is 1/4 to 1/3 volume of sump to volume of tank. So, 50 to 70 gallon sump.

There are different designs for overflows. Is your tank already drilled?

Yes, you can buy pre made sumps.

Water is returned via a return pump.

Sumps filter water by forcing (through gravity usually) water to pass over or through media. Mechanical media first, then bio-logical, and sometimes chemical. Just like any other filter.

Any heater that will fit and would work for the tank and sump water volume.

Might be a good idea to do some searching. Find some videos on YouTube.

 

[skillzizzo]

Hello welcome to the wonderfull world of sumps, and wet drys First off welcome to mfk. If you keep big tanks and a bunch of tanks you will love it here. The best place to start finding the infor you need is go to the top part of this page in the right hand corner there is a search button click on it. type in wet dry thats it. it will take you to counless post and specific post about wet drys. How they work. how to size one for your tank. What flow rate and yadda yadda yadda lol. More information in this section on wet dry that would ever be needed. Spend a couple days reading some threads and you will fully get it and is the best place to start before people starting throwing terms out that mine as well be curve balls.


A wet dry is simple as hell. I diddnt get it before untill i owned a few. Wet dry is called that because half of the sump has water and half doesnt. The biological media that collect the bacteria is out of the water and the water flows over it. It gets more oxygen being out of the water and having the water trickle over it instead of being submerged. And creates the ideal habbitat for benificial bacteria. There are lots of biological material that we use. They are for the most people use bio balls in sumps that have the media out of the water. And ceramic rings for sumps that the media is submersed in water. So sumps allso have what are called filter socks wich is used for mechanical filtration do to as low as 50 micron is the lowest you can get or atleast lowest i have seen. For mechanical filtration. All use sponges, filter floss, All kinds of different stuff. The reason the mechanical filtration goes first as in the filter socks and filter floss. And different stuff is to keep the biological media clean and free from debre to do its job better. Then usually a sponge at the end for more polishing and to keep the return pump back to the tank from getting plugged.

Another reason for using a wet dry or sump instead of a canister is that a wet dry can hold a hell of alot more bio material then a canister. And you can get a lot higher flow rate out of picking your own pumps then what canisters have. Most people use around a 55 gallon sump or more on a 210. but 55 gallon is sufficent if done right. The turn over rate for the tank in my opinion should be atleast 5 times a hour. SO roughly a 1000 gallon pump or more for your tank. I would do 1600 ghp on that tank. Any ways Hope this helped a litte. I cant type any more right now. Just go type wet dry in the search bar at the top. And you will get all the info you need in old threads. And go to you tube like you said and watch some videos and that will give you a basic understand of how a over flow works. and how it flow through the sump and back to the tank. Allso other quistions you had. You dont need to put heaters in the sump we just do to get them out of the tank. You can allso get what is called inline heaters and you can plumb them from the return line to the tank allso. And yes a protein skimmer is absolutely useless on a fresh water set up

 

[Burto]

what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

I would recommend a sump to you if your tank is already drilled and/or has weirs installed, and if you have a bit of DIY experience and/or a lot of time, energy and enthusiasm to learn. A sump can be as effective, as quiet, as versatile, as efficient and as cheap a filter as you can make it - but it's up to you to make it so.

If you want a simple, compact, convenient and effective form of filtration I would recommend canisters.

If the tank already has weirs it would probably work out cheaper to set up a sump than to acquire an appropriate amount of canister filtration. If it doesn't have weirs the hassle of drilling and/or the cost of overflows is probably going to come closer to being equal in costs to canisters and require a lot more effort.

There are a lot of things a sump filter can do that a canister filter can't, but none of them are actually necessary to maintain a healthy aquarium.

 

[Carefree_Dude]

I talked to the guy at the store. He kind of made me angry. They told me they wouldn't tell me how to build a sump, but I could buy one (without the pumps or anything) for 600 dollars. I pretended to be interested in buying one, and I got a lot of information from him. So, bear with me; this is what I got:

Water rises into an overflow

water goes down plumbing, into first "part" of sump.

In this first section of the sump, you will have a filtration media. Bioballs are good.

Water rises over first wall; then it falls into the next chamber. This helps create a wet/dry filter of some sort.

In this next chamber you can add more filter material. You put the return pump in here. It's good to have a ball valve with plumbing that goes back into the pump so you don't do more than your tank can handle.


The return goes up into the tank, where the cycle is repeated

Am I getting this right? What is a good pump for a 210 gallon aquarimum? The guy was trying to sell me this expensive 400 dollar pump.



Should I use PVC or hoses? are there any good guides online to building a freshwater sump?

 

[Carefree_Dude]

Alright, I did more reading, and learned more. I plan on doing a wet/dry sump and using bioballs. I will be turing an old 55 gallon aquarium into my sump. Here are the questions I have left;

What should the turnover of my tank be? I've seen some places say it has to be only 3x total gallons, where as the sticky says as much as 3x total gallons.

Does the GPH output on the pump have to match the GPH input on the overflow box? For example, the pump i'm interested in has a 640GPH rating, where as the overflow boxes i'm seeing are either 600 or 800.

Does the "plumbing" have to match? The pump i'm interested in (Eheim 1260) will connect to 5/8" plumbing. All the overflow boxes i'm finding have 1" plumbing.

 

[jcardona1]

Or you could forget about that old school design and make one like mine. All you need is an old glass tank. No dividers, no baffles, no drip trays. Filter sock at the inlet, ceramic media in the middle, and pump on the other side to return the water to the tank. Couldn't be easier!

 

[watercrawl]

Or you could forget about that old school design and make one like mine. All you need is an old glass tank. No dividers, no baffles, no drip trays. Filter sock at the inlet, ceramic media in the middle, and pump on the other side to return the water to the tank. Couldn't be easier!

Two things:

1. I would love to see this picture NOT posted for one week. I swear it's every discussion about sumps and/or wet/dry filters has you jumping in saying we're all doing it all wrong and then throwing this picture up. Your system might very well work, but damn, give it a rest.

2. I would love to see this filter run a dye test to see how the water actually flows. Again, I'm not saying it doesn't work. However, until I see a dye test or something similar, I won't believe it completely.

 

[jcardona1]

Two things:

1. I would love to see this picture NOT posted for one week. I swear it's every discussion about sumps and/or wet/dry filters has you jumping in saying we're all doing it all wrong and then throwing this picture up. Your system might very well work, but damn, give it a rest.

2. I would love to see this filter run a dye test to see how the water actually flows. Again, I'm not saying it doesn't work. However, until I see a dye test or something similar, I won't believe it completely.

Man, your panties must really be knotted up. You must be upset that you spent all that time/money/effort building a sump when this thing does the exact same more efficiently.

When and where did I say everybody was wrong? I'm only offering advice and how to do things easier and cheaper. You either take it or you don't. Don't tell me what I can and can't post, thanks. Dye test, are you kidding me? Who do you think you are to make such an absurd request? I wouldn't do it for my own purposes, let alone for some troll on a forum board. I don't want nor need to convince you, I could care less.

Besides, what more proof do you need other than 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites?

 

[Carefree_Dude]

In that picture, what are all the meters on the side? Whats that clear thing on the left?

Would having a wet/dry system with bioballs be more effective than this?