would this work? mini sump on a big tank?

[Experiment397]

so i hear about you guys putting 55 gallon sumps on 210's and stuff, so would it be super underkill for me to put a tiny sump on a 125? like seriously a 10 gallon sump, that will be using the same plumbing as the fx5, the fx5 sucks it in, then after going through the fx5 it goes into the sump. would that work? or should i go buy a pump and a rubbermaid tub for my sump? also do you just have the water go into the sump, thats just a container filled with biomedia and mesh, then get sucked back out or what? thnx

 

[manlyfish]

the bigger the better

 

[Ocean Blue]

10gal is too small. You should have a sump 1/4 the size of the tank, but bigger is better. You have to take into account that amount of water that's being pumped up into the tank and the water draining down into the sump. If you use a small pump, the volume of water necessary in the sump could be reduce. But the higher the GPH, the larger the sump volume has to be to cope with the displacement. Hope this makes sense.

 

[dirtbikerider]

Just remember if the power goes out, the pump stops pumping but the overflow keeps draining water into the sump, could be easy to end up with wet floors in a power outage with a small sump

 

[KaiserSousay]

using the same plumbing as the fx5, the fx5 sucks it in, then after going through the fx5 it goes into the sump. would that work?

No

should i go buy a pump and a rubbermaid tub for my sump?

Maybe.
What were you going to use for an overflow?

 

[ar0wan]

On a larger tank you use a larger sump with 'larger' water flow.
The problem here is that for it to work on a 10gal you need slower flow,
which won't be as effective as if you had more flow on a larger sump.

If you use a 10gal on a 125 you will have either
too much water flow or not enough turn over.

Slow the water flow = not enough turn over
Up the water flow = too much water flow to be effective

I try to use a 30% of tank sump so
40 gal for your 125 would be better.
Does that make sense?

 

[Bderick67]

I run a very small sump in comparison to my tank. The sump overall volume is 27g of a 450g tank Two pumps are 960gph and 1600gph so combined after figuring 5' head height they are pumping in the 1400-1500gph range. I have a very small margin between where there is enough water to keep pumps from running dry and the sump overflowing if power is removed. One thing I have is check valves in the two return lines this also prevents a reverse siphon when power is removed.

To answer the OPs question, yes it is possible but it would be better if you used a bigger volume tank for your sump. realize that 1" of water level drop in your 125g equals 5 to 5.6 gallons. Your overflow would have to be setup so that no more then a 1" of water overflowed after power is shut of. The would allow you to keep about 5" of water in the 10g sump to keep the pump submerged.

Also as said before you cannot make this work with an FX5 you will need separate overflow and pump for your sump.

 

[Experiment397]

oh i didnt know i needed an overflow? never mind the sump then. thnx for the info, it did make sense btw.