Will this sump work?

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A

Andrew1002

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Feb 29, 2012
3,352
5
53
New jersey
I made out a sketch of my plans of my sump and need your ideas on the flaws or problems with the design. Please no criticism on my drawing skills of this lol. I'm a good artist I just drew this yesterday when I was really tired so its not that good. But, here's the drawings, everything is labeled. I'll do small area pictures of the plans.
This is a full pic of the crappy drawing
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Then comes the smaller area pics-
uploadfromtaptalk1337492841588.jpg
uploadfromtaptalk1337492855573.jpg
uploadfromtaptalk1337492869588.jpg
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If you can't read something ask me what it says. Okay so the tank will be 94" long by 48" wide by 40" high. The overflow will be 39 3/4" and the water will flow down through a bunch of media and through the media then into a downward ramp that will lead all the water into a pipe. This pipe will go directly into the sump, which will have a bunch of filter pads, bio balls, filter media, and other things, then it will go through a series of "towers" that will be shorter than the previous "tower" the second tower will lead into an area that is full of crayfish, fish, snails, and plants. They should eat any excess food. Then through this little "tank" within the sump the water then flows back through more polishing filter media, which will polish the water and leave it sparkling clean to go back into the main tank. Then through this polishing material it will go through a small "tunnel" and into the return hose, which will return the water into a spraybar that will push the water out very strongly. I'm planning on pulling over 5000 gallons per hour with this sump. The sump will be 18" high, 40" wide, and 50" long which will make it approximately 150 gallons. Will this be able to support my water overturn? How are my amateur design plans? The overflow will be a "divider" that will be 4" deep and it will be against a wall of the tank. Will this work? Will i need a larger sump? What size should that sump be? Any ideas are welcome. Feel free to show your own design plans to help me improve. Thanks everyone!


I'M ANDREW AND I'M A FISHAHOLIC
-Andrew
 
A few things to consider:

1. Make sure your drain is large enough to handle the flow. At 5,000GPH through one drain, I would make it a 4" drain just to be safe. If you have two drains, I would go with 3" each to make sure they can handle the flow you are looking to achieve. I ran (3) 2" drains and at 4,500GPH, the pump was overpowering the drains. I had to valve the pump back a little bit. This is assuming you are running durso type overflow(s). If you run a full siphon, then you can probably get away with using smaller plumbing, although you would want two drains (one for the full siphon, and another emergency drain in the event that the main drain gets clogged- Do a search for Herbie Overflow or check this out for more info_ http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx). You will probably have to make your overflow chamber deeper than 4" to acommodate these bulkhead fittings.

2. I don't like the idea of putting filter pads in the overflow. You would have to watch it like a hawk because if the filter pad starts to get clogged up, your pump will overpower the drain and one of two things will happen A) Your pump will overflow your display tank and then your pump will eventually run dry. B) Your pump will run dry. Instead of the prefilter in the overflow, I would run your drains into filter socks inside of your sump. If the filter sock gets clogged, it will simply spill over the side of your sock into the sump and your circulation will continue without any problem.

3. If your plan to have more fish, crayfish, snails etc in the sump is to help with water clarity I would forget about it. By adding more creatures in the sump, you are only increasing your bioload. Keeping plants on the other hand is a great idea and would help to reduce your nitrates. You would need some light down there to keep the plants healthy/growing.

4. Are you sure you wouldn't rather get a complete setup in the 240G to 300G range and see how that goes? Building a large setup from scratch will be a pain and take a really long time.
 
aldiaz33 said:
A few things to consider:

1. Make sure your drain is large enough to handle the flow. At 5,000GPH through one drain, I would make it a 4" drain just to be safe. If you have two drains, I would go with 3" each to make sure they can handle the flow you are looking to achieve. I ran (3) 2" drains and at 4,500GPH, the pump was overpowering the drains. I had to valve the pump back a little bit. This is assuming you are running durso type overflow(s). If you run a full siphon, then you can probably get away with using smaller plumbing, although you would want two drains (one for the full siphon, and another emergency drain in the event that the main drain gets clogged- Do a search for Herbie Overflow or check this out for more info_ http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx). You will probably have to make your overflow chamber deeper than 4" to acommodate these bulkhead fittings.

2. I don't like the idea of putting filter pads in the overflow. You would have to watch it like a hawk because if the filter pad starts to get clogged up, your pump will overpower the drain and one of two things will happen A) Your pump will overflow your display tank and then your pump will eventually run dry. B) Your pump will run dry. Instead of the prefilter in the overflow, I would run your drains into filter socks inside of your sump. If the filter sock gets clogged, it will simply spill over the side of your sock into the sump and your circulation will continue without any problem.

3. If your plan to have more fish, crayfish, snails etc in the sump is to help with water clarity I would forget about it. By adding more creatures in the sump, you are only increasing your bioload. Keeping plants on the other hand is a great idea and would help to reduce your nitrates. You would need some light down there to keep the plants healthy/growing.

4. Are you sure you wouldn't rather get a complete setup in the 240G to 300G range and see how that goes? Building a large setup from scratch will be a pain and take a really long time.
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Thank you so much for all the advice. Is 3/4" from the surface low enough to turn over 5000 gph?

I'M ANDREW AND I'M A FISHAHOLIC
-Andrew
 
I don't know, but if I had to guess, that would be cutting it close. A lot also depends on the size of your overflow box. If you are making the overflow out of acrylic, I would start with 3/4" from the top and if it can't handle 5,000GPH you can always cut it down some more.
 
1) I would make the refugium walls taller. There is no reason to give up the volume by making the refugium walls short.

2) I would either cut slots into the top of the partition between the refugium and the pump compartment or put some egg crate on top of the partition to keep any floating plant matter in the refugium.

3) I wouldn't run bio balls submerged... it is a waste. Use ceramic media if it is going to be submerged.

4) I would buy a ruler.... :D
 
Oughtsix said:
1) I would make the refugium walls taller. There is no reason to give up the volume by making the refugium walls short.
Click to expand...

Be careful not to make them too tall, otherwise you risk the sump not being able to accommodate the backsiphoned water when you turn your pumps off. This is one of the reasons I like to run as large a sump as possible; it gives you a greater margin for error.
 
aldiaz33 said:
Be careful not to make them too tall, otherwise you risk the sump not being able to accommodate the backsiphoned water when you turn your pumps off. This is one of the reasons I like to run as large a sump as possible; it gives you a greater margin for error.
Click to expand...

Very true, you will need to balance your refuge capacity with the system overflow capacity.
 
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