WTHeck is a DIY Sump ?

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dgiotto1970

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 17, 2006
22
0
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Tulare, CA
I have a question for y'all. I hear alot about DIY sumps. What are they and do you need one or is it just a preference to something else ??
conf40.gif


I really don't want to sound like I don't know anything, because I've kept fish for about ten years or so, but I've always had really good luck :woot: because I never did any really regular maintenance and have always had a very nice tank and really healthy fish. Now I have my 20 gal. planted and my 60 gal cichlid tank and I really want to get a lot more into this great hobby, but I'm lacking some knowledge obviously :help2:

Thanks for any help
:cheers:
 
Well its just a diff type of filter. Also called a wet/dry or trickle filter. Im sure sum otehr memebers will explain it to u in full. Im not too knoledgeable about them cuz i have never had one but i do plan on making one soon
 
The sump is what you build your wet/dry filter in (drip plate, filter media, return pump, etc.). It can be a tank or large rubbermaid container with partitions an such built into it.
 
I have a AquClear 500 on my tank. So what i'm getting is it is just a different type of filter ??
 
Basically short answer is yes, yet so much more. Pending on the size of the sump you can also increase your water volume. plus, you can add plants for o2 and the falling water ads O2 as well you can also put your heater in there so you dont have to see all the stuff in there.
 
A sump also allows for;

More even water level in the tank. (evaporation is evident in the sump)
Easier creation of automatic waterchange systems.
Increased water volume is actually easier to balance.
A secondary tank to raise other aquatic species.

I know a guy who uses a 125g horse troth as a pond/sump in his garage (summer den), behind the fish room.

... and so much more, but I am tired & can't think.
 
dgiotto1970 said:
I have a AquClear 500 on my tank. So what i'm getting is it is just a different type of filter ??
Click to expand...
Yes that is correct.
The AquaClear 500 which is now the Aquaclear 110 power filter, is a filter that hangs on the tank. It uses a mechanical type filter, foam and floss being biological and chemical type in the way of the carbon and such. Fairly small area for filtering.
A sump, wet/dry, trickle, on the other hand is primarily a Biological type filter. H20 is plumbed to the filter and broke up into more surface area by making it trickle or spray onto it's filter media. It utilizes media that has massive surface area that supports the growth of bennificial bacteria that converts ammonia from fish waste, decomposing food etc. to a nitrite , also toxic to fish. There is also bacteria that competes with the nitrite starving it of the oxygen. This converts this nitrite to a less toxic nitrate that will gas off into harmless nitrogen.
Because there is so much room with this type of filter system it is easy to add other types of filtration to it. When I built my system I added mechanical filters in the way of 2 densities of foam, bonded floss, 100 and 50 micron felt. I also recently added a bit of chemical filtration in the way of bio-sorb. I did this because of the recent addition of fish and raw fish food, to help with the possible spike of ammonia that can occur when the Bio-load is increased.
They are easily serviced and the broad range of media available makes them ideal for me. You can buy filter material in bulk which is a fraction of the cost, making it easier to keep up with.
I also want to add that I built my system for less than a hundred bux.
The commercially available systems with the same filtering capacity, would cost 4-5 times as much and some of them use priority parts that you have to buy specifically for the system, making the cost even more to maintain.

Hope that sheds a little light on the subject, there are alot of things I did way back when I started, that makes me wonder how the hell I ever kept fish alive at all...
My mortality rate is a hellva lot better now with the new technology.
And it's easy to build DIY style...~Z :thumbsup:
 
zennzzo said:
Yes that is correct.
The AquaClear 500 which is now the Aquaclear 110 power filter, is a filter that hangs on the tank. It uses a mechanical type filter, foam and floss being biological and chemical type in the way of the carbon and such. Fairly small area for filtering.
A sump, wet/dry, trickle, on the other hand is primarily a Biological type filter. H20 is plumbed to the filter and broke up into more surface area by making it trickle or spray onto it's filter media. It utilizes media that has massive surface area that supports the growth of bennificial bacteria that converts ammonia from fish waste, decomposing food etc. to a nitrite , also toxic to fish. There is also bacteria that competes with the nitrite starving it of the oxygen. This converts this nitrite to a less toxic nitrate that will gas off into harmless nitrogen.
Because there is so much room with this type of filter system it is easy to add other types of filtration to it. When I built my system I added mechanical filters in the way of 2 densities of foam, bonded floss, 100 and 50 micron felt. I also recently added a bit of chemical filtration in the way of bio-sorb. I did this because of the recent addition of fish and raw fish food, to help with the possible spike of ammonia that can occur when the Bio-load is increased.
They are easily serviced and the broad range of media available makes them ideal for me. You can buy filter material in bulk which is a fraction of the cost, making it easier to keep up with.
I also want to add that I built my system for less than a hundred bux.
The commercially available systems with the same filtering capacity, would cost 4-5 times as much and some of them use priority parts that you have to buy specifically for the system, making the cost even more to maintain.

Hope that sheds a little light on the subject, there are alot of things I did way back when I started, that makes me wonder how the hell I ever kept fish alive at all...
My mortality rate is a hellva lot better now with the new technology.
And it's easy to build DIY style...~Z :thumbsup:
Click to expand...


Thank You that really explains it for me. I just might have to look into this :naughty:
 
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