Wet Flow Sump/"Canister"

[pwmin]

I am building a sump for my 300 (one for now, another for later). I am going to use a submersible pump (at least for this one). The container is an All-Glass 50 long (4x1x1.5) and I will have a mixture of cell-pore media and scrubbies and maybe some bio-balls or bio-bale. I was told to only use one divider between the filter socks and the pump/bio-media, use a drip plate and fill it with bio (surrounding the pump). I was just curious as to if I could do it a different way. I did a quick drawing, which I will attach. What do you think? I know it’s not much harder at all to add a drip plate, but I was just kinda thinking. This way, I could have the water level wherever I wanted it. Thanks for your consideration.

 

[Pharaoh]

It would be a sump in lieu of a wet/dry. The only down side would be that you don't get the aeration of the water/bio as it fall over the media. Either way it will work. You should be able to control the water level either way. Go with the one you like or think will work better.

 

[pwmin]

At the temp the tank will be running (87F), I should have the most aeration that I can, so I'll probably just do the drip plate. I can make a shelf out of glass and just use the 1/2" acrylic I have for the plate.

The only advantages to this design will be that i will be able to expand the bio-media area easily and I can mount the filter socks more easily. I'm thinking that the extra aeration w/ the drip plate outweighs those two advantages.

thanks for the input.

 

[Pharaoh]

I agree, you are going to have to need all the oxygen that you can get at 87*

Go with the drip plate. Put a couple-few airstones under the bio media in the sump to help with aeration.

 

[pwmin]

thanks for the help. That's what I'm going to do. I planned everything out and I should have almost 29 gallons for bio. gonna be expensive to fill

 

[Pharaoh]

It won't be expensive if you use scrubbies. PM Zennzzo, he sells them cheap.

It took me about 400-500 scrubbies to fill my ~50G bio area. Total cost probably around $40.

 

[pwmin]

I figured that I would need more, but that's good to know that's all I'll need. I was going to go with some cell pore, bioballs and bio-bale in addition, but bio-bale and bioballs come out to be about the same price as scrubbies but less s.a. and cell-pore is too much right now for my budget.

I got scrubbies from him when I did the 55 sump for my 210. I can save some getting them from somewhere else, but I'd rather help a fellow hobbyist out.