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Innovative Marine Aquariums

DIY 10 gallon refugium sump


bntv

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I'm planning to make a refugium/sump but have some questions I'm not too sure about and would like some advice. This would be my first diy sump, so i really have no idea what I'm doing.

1. Would it be ideal to make a 10 gallon sump for a 10 gallon display tank, if not what size sump should I go for?

2. Would this overflow siphon work?


http://www.amazon.com/Eshopps-AEO10100- ... erflow+box

3. What return pump would be sufficient?

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NanoMaster32

I would say even a 5 gallon sump would work just fine. I t really depends what equipment you want to add. I would say that a siphon overflow is ok but it makes doing water changes a hassle because you have to always restart the siphon. A return of about 200 to 300 per hour I would say. If you are doing a refugium with macros you may want less flow through the sump to allow the algae to do its job.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a 10 gallon sump on mym12 gallon cube. I ripped out the back wall and installed an overflow. I love it and if you do it right you do NOT have to restart the siphon if the power goes out, etc. I will post some better pics when I get home but my filtration is just the fuge and a cheap little skimer.....post-64889-0-27657400-1428445221_thumb.jpg

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I have the larger version of that overflow box you are looking at and you don't need to restart the syphon after a water change or even after the power goes out. I think in the last 3 years the box lost it's syphon once and that was my fault completely. You just have to make sure there is enough flow going through the U-Tube so that air does not collect in it. Past that it is virtually maintenance free! And I would not recommend a 5 gallon sump I had one and it was horrible to work in because it was so small. Go with the 10 you won't regret it! Plus more water volume = more stable system (which is one of the biggest perks to adding a sump!). For a return I would say go for a 300 gph pump (check out the mag drives, they hold up better than most other brands) because you can always add a ball valve to turn them down but you can't turn them up! If you don't get enough flow through that overflow box it will break its syphon because the air will just collect rather than getting pushed through. Also a bigger pump would allow you to add a manifold at some point to run rectors and such.

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I think a 10G is your best bet. Plus they're like the cheapest tank size.

 

I normally avoid siphon tube overflows like the plague thus I was freaking out for a minute when longfin & bingo were claiming they don't lose siphon even in a power outage. But after careful analysis of the design it appears that there is a baffle in the output chamber that prevents all the water from exiting the u tube. Though I don't understand the other side of the U tube, because if the top tank runs out of water the siphon will still continue draining water until none is left at which point air is typically introduced and the siphon is broken. How do they solve this issue? I really am curious.

 

For the return pump, I think 300gph is probably a good target unless you have a lot of head loss. Head loss is the height the pump has to move the water before it exits into the display tank. So basically the distance from the bottom of your sump where the pump would sit to the top rim of your display tank.

 

Just check out some of the sump builds around and get ideas of what you want to use the sump for (skimmer, refugium, frag growing area, predator keeper, macro algae area, etc... There are a ton of options here and the best part about doing it yourself is you can design it how you want!

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I think a 10G is your best bet. Plus they're like the cheapest tank size.

 

I normally avoid siphon tube overflows like the plague thus I was freaking out for a minute when longfin & bingo were claiming they don't lose siphon even in a power outage. But after careful analysis of the design it appears that there is a baffle in the output chamber that prevents all the water from exiting the u tube. Though I don't understand the other side of the U tube, because if the top tank runs out of water the siphon will still continue draining water until none is left at which point air is typically introduced and the siphon is broken. How do they solve this issue? I really am curious.

 

For the return pump, I think 300gph is probably a good target unless you have a lot of head loss. Head loss is the height the pump has to move the water before it exits into the display tank. So basically the distance from the bottom of your sump where the pump would sit to the top rim of your display tank.

 

Just check out some of the sump builds around and get ideas of what you want to use the sump for (skimmer, refugium, frag growing area, predator keeper, macro algae area, etc... There are a ton of options here and the best part about doing it yourself is you can design it how you want!

Yes I have in the past avoided overflow boxes and this is the ONLY kind I will ever use. The way mine works: there are two boxes one in the tank and one behind the tank. The two boxes are connected with the U-Tube which is where the syphon is at. Now the magic of this box is that the water level in the two boxes always remains equal. The water level in the back box is controlled by the height of the PVC pipe in it. So when water stops being forced into the black overflow box in the tank, the water level drops below the PVC pipe in the back box and thus stops draining. When the water level in the two boxes become equal the syphon stops before the U-Tube can draw up any air. This then leaves the U-Tube full of water and no air so that when the pump is then turned back on and the water level in the inside box rises it is again forced up the U-Tube back into the second box and then into the sump. The key like I said before is to have enough flow so that air bubbles do not build up in the top of the u-tube and can be pushed through. Thanks to some brilliant engineering at eshopps we don't have to make all these hard calculations lol. Hope that helps explain how it works!

 

PS: In the overflow box in his post the baffle sets the back water height as apposed to the PVC pipe I think that is something new they started doing since I got mine 3 years ago!

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Go to home depot in the window/door section and buy pieces of glass and a cheap glass cutting kit. Measure, cut, seal. Really easy, although i did go through like six pieces of glass to get three baffles my first time. Once you get it though, you can do anything, like the little square I made for my mag return......post-64889-0-82534200-1428555512_thumb.jpgpost-64889-0-14764900-1428555484_thumb.jpg

 

2.5 gallon tank on upper right of pic is for making NSW for once a week water change. There is another one on the opposite side for ro/di top off that is plumbed into stand, removed it so you could see baffles and skimmer.

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Two more pics, not the greatest tank ever, still workin on it. Everything is happy and growing though with just a fuge, a skimmer and a sorta DSB, and some carbon. Everyone said a DSB this small was worthless but I have a lot of anaerobic areas in it and it seems fine.......post-64889-0-70437700-1428555841_thumb.jpg

Oops!post-64889-0-98228000-1428556114_thumb.jpg

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Go to home depot in the window/door section and buy pieces of glass and a cheap glass cutting kit. Measure, cut, seal. Really easy, although i did go through like six pieces of glass to get three baffles my first time. Once you get it though, you can do anything, like the little square I made for my mag return...

 

Glass is good, but IMO not ideal for sump baffles - reason being it's quite sharp.

 

1/4" acrylic would be better IMO, you can also get it at most big box HW stores and for the pieces you need shouldn't cost more than $20. Cutting it will probably require a saw though, preferably a table saw or a router.

 

If glass is what you can do though, get some silicone carbide sand paper and a sanding block and round over the exposed edges of the glass so you don't cut yourself working in the sump.

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As far as glass vs acrylic I have heard horror stories of acrylic baffles expanding when in the water for a while and breaking glass sumps. I would stick with glass. I used it and honestly all I had to do was sand it with 600 grit sand paper just on the top edges. I haven't cut my arms at all on mine!

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