wet/dry questions

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A

abranaugh

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 14, 2012
7
0
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Madison, WI
I am building my first sump for my turtle tank. I have a 75 gallon tank and it will have 12" of water, so about 40 gallons total. I was planning on using jcardona1 design for my sump:

View attachment 786984

My main questions are on the size of the baffles and the size of the different sections. I was quoted $20 for three baffles that are 11 7/8" x 9" x 1/4" and one baffle that was 11 7/8" x 5" x 1/4". Are these sizes appropriate or should I change them? Also for the pump, I was going to use a mag 5, should I change that? I was planning on using a 4" filter sock (http://www.amazon.com/CPR-Sock-It-H...?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1338342849&sr=1-8) for that. So the different compartments would be probably 4" or so for the first (whatever the diameter is of that, 2" for the second, then 12" for the next, another 2" and then that would leave 10" for the last section (which I hope to keep the pump and heaters). For the drip tray section, I am thinking the bio balls would be 3" from the bottom, which would leave about 5" of bioballs, I am not sure if this would be a good amount or not. What do people use for the drip trays?

All help is appreciated, this about everything I can think of right now.

Thanks,
Adam
 
I love turtles. They poop a lot, as I am sure that you know. Though I do not know what size tank you're planning on filtering with this sump, I would suggest definitely upgrading the pump size. On large cichlid-type fish (as in large cichlids, and other messy, meaty fish), my usual recommendation is 4x turnover of the whole tank for sump filtration. With turtles, however, it's a whole-nother ball game. I would look for 6 to 7x turnover of the whole tank per hour. This will mean that you will have more waste being moved into the sump, and a cleaner display.

If this sump is not going to be the sole filtration, as in you have a canister or HOB as well, then lower turnover would be fine, 3 or 4x per hour, providing that the other filtration makes up for it.

Also, you need to factor in head loss for your pump. A mag5 pumping up 5ish feet is going to be moving 375-425gph, not including elbows or other plumbing.
 
wow_it_esploded said:
I love turtles. They poop a lot, as I am sure that you know. Though I do not know what size tank you're planning on filtering with this sump, I would suggest definitely upgrading the pump size. On large cichlid-type fish (as in large cichlids, and other messy, meaty fish), my usual recommendation is 4x turnover of the whole tank for sump filtration. With turtles, however, it's a whole-nother ball game. I would look for 6 to 7x turnover of the whole tank per hour. This will mean that you will have more waste being moved into the sump, and a cleaner display.

If this sump is not going to be the sole filtration, as in you have a canister or HOB as well, then lower turnover would be fine, 3 or 4x per hour, providing that the other filtration makes up for it.

Also, you need to factor in head loss for your pump. A mag5 pumping up 5ish feet is going to be moving 375-425gph, not including elbows or other plumbing.
Click to expand...


I should have clarified that the 75 gallon is the main tank and I will be using a 20 gallon long for the sump.
 
OOHHHH... haha, I see. I just re-read the original post and realized how dumb I was being. The mag 5 should be more than sufficient haha. And if you find that you are not getting the waste movement that you want, you can always add a powerhead in tank.

Oh jeeze, should NOT be on MFK in the middle of the night.
 
wow_it_esploded said:
OOHHHH... haha, I see. I just re-read the original post and realized how dumb I was being. The mag 5 should be more than sufficient haha. And if you find that you are not getting the waste movement that you want, you can always add a powerhead in tank.

Oh jeeze, should NOT be on MFK in the middle of the night.
Click to expand...

How does the Mag 5 compare to the Aquatics Quiet One Pro 2200 594gph? Also what size plumping do you think I should use? I was thinking 1" will that be sufficient, should I go down to 3/4"?

And lastly, what baffle height should I use?
 
The mag 5 should have better flow for the same head. They are metal and are super reliable. I have a bigger model on my pond and it has run dry for days and days before (ie: top off system is down, and we are on vacation) and always been fine. We still have the mag from our smaller 120g pond that we built 12 years ago and it still runs like new. They are super reliable, and are backed by years of reputable service. I know that people like the "quiet one"s here, but I think the mag is worth it. QO are plastic, and therefore can break much more easily. If a tab or something cracks you could be screwed. Though the QO 2200 runs at 4 fewer watts, that difference is almost negligible. I vote for the mag hands down just based on durability and time tested ruggedness.

For return plumbing, just plumb whatever the pump comes with on the outflow, or one size larger. For overflows, plumbing size really has to do with the style of overflow you are doing. I would do 1.25in or 1.5in, which is excessive for any overflow situation, but I like the ability to upgrade to a larger pump in the future, and in the event of a partial obstruction of the overflow, a 1.5 inch overflow iwll have a much higher chance of still being able to allow sufficient flow to keep up with the pump than a 1 inch. 1 inch is about the minimum, and is generally rated to 600gph of flow for overflows.
 
Baffle height depends on baffle orientation. You should draw something up in paint or something and we can go from there.
 
wow_it_esploded said:
Baffle height depends on baffle orientation. You should draw something up in paint or something and we can go from there.
Click to expand...

Lets see if this works. There are 3" from the bottom to the egg crate and about 7.5" for the bioballs. It is 13" tall. There is a 1" gap between the first baffle's top and the top of the tank. I am not quite sure what I should use for the drip plate though, does anyone have suggestions of something I could get at a home depot. The number's in the tank are the heigh of the baffle.

Sump-1.JPG

Sump-1.JPG
 
abranaugh said:
How does the Mag 5 compare to the Aquatics Quiet One Pro 2200 594gph? Also what size plumping do you think I should use? I was thinking 1" will that be sufficient, should I go down to 3/4"?

And lastly, what baffle height should I use?
Click to expand...

I have a Quiet One 3000. It works but I don't care for it. If the pump is switched on with any sort of head pressure at all the impeller wont start spinning on its own. Once the impeller is turning it runs fine but my next pump won't be a Quiet One.

Definitely 1" or bigger. 3/4" is too small. 1" should be about right.

Your design looks excellent to me! What is the total volume of the BioBall chamber going to be?

Is the last 4" baffle to keep the bottom bio balls submersed in case of a power outage? Good idea if it is!

Shove a bubble bar under the bio ball chamber.

Do you use heaters on a turtle tank? If so is there room for the heaters?
 
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