Would this work?

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illbethejudge

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2014
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Miami, FL
I currently have one 120 gallon sitting on a 6" base with plenty of filtration but i need the filters i have in that tank for some smaller tanks and i had the idea to make some kind of sump out of a 55 gallon barrel. questions i have are the following:
1) would it work?
2) in case of power outage how to prevent the barrel from overflowing since it would be an open top
3) what diameter pipes and how many gph my pump needs to be?
4) to to prevent the water in the barrel from overflowing the tank in case of loss of suction?
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For something like that you have to have an overflow, not siphoning, unless you lift the barrel up so the water level in the barrel is the same as the tank water level.

Your best bet would be to build something like a HOB overflow. There are lots of plans around for them.

I'd go for something like a 2000 or so lph pump, and maybe 20mm hoses. Bigger is better. But you're going to be hugely overfiltered with a 55g drum sized filter on a 120g tank. That's not a bad thing though.
 
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TwoHedWlf said:
For something like that you have to have an overflow, not siphoning, unless you lift the barrel up so the water level in the barrel is the same as the tank water level.

Your best bet would be to build something like a HOB overflow. There are lots of plans around for them.

I'd go for something like a 2000 or so lph pump, and maybe 20mm hoses. Bigger is better. But you're going to be hugely overfiltered with a 55g drum sized filter on a 120g tank. That's not a bad thing though.
Click to expand...
they will be basically at the same height since the tank is sitting on a 6 inch base.
 
Last edited:
Even is the sump is only slight lower, it will work.
I have used both barrels and tanks, and as long as there is a slight bit of gravity going , once you start the sumps water will be pulled from the main tank.
Here are a couple examples that will work with either overflows or drilled.

on this one you'll see the overflow box is sitting on the edge of the sump, only 6-8" below the tank.

next a barrel on the floor, where the rim is only a couple feet below the tank.


and it doesn't;t matter if the sump is off to the side.
Below is a sump off to the side, ao access to equipment is easy for maintenance, and water entry to the sump, is only inches lower than the tank surface.

 
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duanes said:
Even is the sump is only slight lower, it will work.
I have used both barrels and tanks, and as long as there is a slight bit of gravity going , once you start the sumps water will be pulled from the main tank.
Here are a couple examples that will work with either overflows or drilled.

on this one you'll see the overflow box is sitting on the edge of the sump, only 6-8" below the tank.

next a barrel on the floor, where the rim is only a couple feet below the tank.


and it doesn't;t matter if the sump is off to the side.
Below is a sump off to the side, ao access to equipment is easy for maintenance, and water entry to the sump, is only inches lower than the tank surface.

Click to expand...
Wow. that is awesome.
 
Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but
I was looking at your sketch, and don't quite get how you plan to get water from tank to sump
With overflow boxes (weirs), and drilled tanks (where its drilled near the top of the tank) gravity is used to drain water to the sump, so the sump doesn't overflow unless the pump over powers either the weir, or the plumbing of the drilled opening.
Many times if the plumbing to sump, begins low in the tank, gravity will push all water out faster than the pump can keep up, and this overflows the sump.
You'll notice my overflow boxes have weirs, to prevent this. If I just ran Utubes , they suck water too fast until either tank was drained completly, or siphon broke, and water is pumped until sump was dry, but overflowed tank on the floor.
If you realize this, no prob, but just checking if the concept is understood.
 
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