30g frag tank / 10g sump questions

[Tkpico]

Hello everyone, I hope I am posting this in the correct forum.

 

I am currently in the process of setting up a 30 gallon frag tank with a 10 gallon sump and have a few questions regarding plumbing the tank to the sump. The tank measures 24x24x12 and it will be about 34" above the sump.

 

The tank I picked up has a 1" hole drilled in the bottom of the tank, towards the back.

My question is how would you utilize it? I am not sure how the previous owner used it. Would you just plug it and run an overflow setup? I can drill more holes if needed.

 

1" hole seen here in red

 

green is where sump will be placed

 

here is the sump tank ill be using, I will be making the baffles. I would like to keep it simple with 3 chambers. The center being filled with liverock and chaeto.

 

Is it acceptable to run 1" clear flexible tubing instead of PVC?

 

This is my first time running this sort of set up, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Lets take things one step at a time.

 

Overflow

You will need two holes for this in order to run a Herbie overflow which should be sufficient for your tank. That means having one drain as a siphon and the other as an emergency. Two 3/4" holes will do just fine. If the hole is larger than 3/4" then use the larger hole for an emergency drain and then the new 3/4" hole as the full siphon.

 

Return

You can either drill an additional hole in the bottom, drill a hole in the back, or just route some PVC or a nozzle in order to pump water over the edge of the display tank. You can check my build log and see what I mean. I have a herbie overflow (I drilled the back panel instead of the bottom) and then routed the PVC over the edge of the tank instead of drilling another hole.

 

Plumbing

Yes, you can use flex tubing as well. The nylon braided hose is a common material as it doesn't kink as much as the regular clear tygon tubing. It's easier to use than PVC but doesn't really look as clean IMO.

 

Sump Design

In my build log in my sig you can see how I made mine. I used a 20 long tank with .222" acrylic. The first section is the skimmer section and the first baffle is 8" tall. That one is siliconed to the bottom of the tank and an inch over is another 9" baffle but that one is an inch off of the bottom of the tank. Those two baffles function as a bubble trap. You can put on a third baffle that's glued to the bottom in order to make the bubble trap work even better. My third baffle is all the way across the sump and is 8" high as well. This sets the water level for the middle section of my tank. The final section is where I have my float switch for my ATO and where my return pump is.

 

Sump Contents

I would be hesitant about putting live rock in the sump as it tends to become a detritus trap. It also interferes with the chaeto as it can keep it from spinning and getting light all to all of the chaeto. Instead of live rock, you could do some ceramic rings in a fine mesh bag. That way you can pull it out and rinse out the detritus whenever you do a water change.

 

Stand

I would rotate your stand 90 degrees so that you have more access to the sump from the front. If you happen to put the door on the side then that would make sense. Pretty much I'm just saying to put the door on the side where you have access to the long side of the sump and not just the small short side.