"internal" sump in a diy aio tank

[shampy]

i need help with some dimensions.

tank size (cm) : 75x45x35

 

sump will host a tunze nanostream 6015, it will be splitted in 3 parts.

 

1' with the comb (4cm height, with 0.5cm "teeths", 15cm long). maybe a skimmer here.

2' with matrix, 15 cm long, split end at 2 cm from bottom (is enough or it needs to be higher ?)

3' with pump, 15 cm long aswell.

 

any advice for x,y,z ?

basically where to end the split and location of the pump output.

 

i need to put something like a deflector to direct the water flow to the surface ?

 

sand is 1-2 mm and i intend to host some soft corals (mushrooms) and later maybe a bta.

 

thanks !

[VW_TDI_02]

Just to be clear, by host you mean that the Tunze will be the pump pushing water out of the little hole, correct?

 

The first issue I see is with the skimmer. If you were to leave the setup as is, I would put the skimmer in the second/middle column and put a media rack in the first/right column. The media rack would hold your usual mechanical filtration along with carbon/gfo or whatever else you want to toss in there.

 

One thing to remember with a skimmer is that they need a consistent water level or else you run the risk of overflowing the cup and pumping all that skimmate right back into your tank. This is why a lot of people delay turning on their skimmers for a little bit after turning off their return pump. One thing you could do is add another wall. This wall would be 2 cm to the left of the first wall (the one with the gap underneath) and that one would be glued to the very bottom and would be the same height as the wall all the way to the left. With this wall, the skimmer section water level will never fall. I wouldn't say adding the second wall is absolutely necessary but it would help maintain the water level in the middle section for the skimmer.

 

The other issue I see is that with the pump hole on the left and you noted that in your post. I would add a bulkhead to that hole and connect some locline to it. You can then adjust the locline so that it is pumping water out near the surface. This way you will have less water backing up into the back whenever you turn off the return pump.

 

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pumps-plumbing/plumbing/loc-line.html

[shampy]

yes, correct, it have a bit of "neck" just perfect to insert it in a hole

 

tbh, at this time i intend to do water changes and skip skimmer (i was looking at tunze 9002). reason is in about ~1 year i will move to another location and if everything goes well this tank will be transformed to sump, and i will make a larger tank (120cm x 50 x 45), so i will need a bigger skimmer.

probably i will put another filtering material in the 1' chamber.

 

thanks for locline advice, seems like a good ideea, if i can hide it a bit, thats the reason i put wave pump in there, i hate to see it in display .

i will make 2xwall decoration using water/fish safe cement and pieces of reef rocks, maybe i could somehow put the locline in there.

 

any ideeas with hole location ?

[VW_TDI_02]

If you don't plan on having a wave maker in the display then I would definitely recommend using something flexible/adjustable like locline simply because it's very difficult to predict how your flow will be when you start factoring in coral and rock placement.

 

The other thing I would look at would be simply skipping the tunze and getting something like a MJ1200. You can then use a tube to plumb the outflow of the pump into the locline. If you do this then make sure to get a cobalt aquatics MJ1200 and not a marineland one. They look the same but the marineland ones are cheap and make a lot more noise. You can also put the hole wherever with this design. The other thing is that the tunze pulls water from all around it. As a result you need to make sure that you have at least 4" of water above it so that you don't start pulling in air bubbles and pumping them into your tank (especially when you haven't topped off the tank in a while).