Design my sump...

[Pulldownyourpants]

IMO the 30g is small but at the moment it's all I have. It would fit nicely in the cabinet for the 150. I may also try to get a little retarded and connect my 55g to the 150g and attempt to create a larger filtration tub for both. This all depends on how I set it all up. My basement is looking like the most ideal spot for the 150 (I already have a 90g in the dining room) but I've yet to truely decide what I want to do.

[DeskJockey]

pants-

I would use the 50 as my sump and the 30 for a refugium.

With all the extra space in the sump you could section it off and use a portion as a grow out tank for frags and for any fish that need some quite time. A 50 should fit under that thing no problem. This is exactly what I plan on doing when (IF) I get a bigger tank.

 

Good Luck

[Pulldownyourpants]

The 55 is actually the exact same length as the 150 so fitting in the cab is impossible. Unless.....hell, now I'm not sure if my 30 will slide into the cab. :

 

I'll have to give it a shot when I get home. If I can get the 55 in there, then that may be a good idea.

[DeskJockey]

ohhhhhhh so its not a 150 long. yeah that could be tuff. I have a 65 and I hate not having enough space in the stand.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I'm assuming your 55 is 4ft long then.... but your 150 ??? wow, that must have some serious measurements in hight and front to back depth. I'm looking at a 108 that is 5ft long and a 135 that is 6 feet long... oh well I've been looking at the 108 for a year, price is great but, would cost alot to stock it.

[DeskJockey]

> I'm assuming your 55 is 4ft long then.... but your 150 wow, that must have some serious measurements in hight and front to back depth.

 

Yeah thats what I was thinking! Its gonna take some serious lighting to adequately light any corals at the bottom.

 

whats the dims?

[BCOrchidGuy]

I'm thinking it must be 48 long, 30 front to back and 24 tall... thats one nasty tank. Lots of room for LR and still have a ton of open sand for fish etc... very cool tank if thats the dimentions.

[Pulldownyourpants]

48 long but not sure about the rest. I think it's a 30 hieght and 24 depth. The hieght is definately more than the depth. It's a nice tank but I would have really prefered one with more length. I only picked this up because I had a 30% off coupon for Petsmart and this was going to be the best deal. They had a 125 but they wanted $400 for the stand alone. I know I could have built a stand for it for cheap (my brother *****es-I'll make a note of this bad word edit thingy LOL!!- about that all of the time) but I'm lazy like that. Only paid $500 for the tank, glass tops, light, UG filter (LOL!! I know I know) and stand. Not a bad deal.

 

Thread owner: sorry about the hijack.

[lizbeth]

Ok now that I really am doing this too I've been doing some research.

 

Glazer, you said sump/refuge. Are you going to use part of the tank as a refuge or are you going have a separate one. I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do with mine. I like the idea of a combined sump/refuge but I'm not sure how practical it is.

 

Here is a plan I found on http://www.angelfire.com/ok/dog1/sumps.html

Is seems like the water coming up over the partition would cause problems with the sand being stirred up......what do you think?

 

Here's the picture;

[glazer]

Lizbeth.... sump/refugium combo. In fact...... that diagram that you put up is pretty much EXACTLY what my intended setup is looking like...well no balls though,hehe. The water really isn't going to be "falling over" the partition... it will in effect be flowing across,mixing of course with the baffled section. Where the water is really going to be "falling" is over the baffle into the return pump chamber. This has the potential for the pump to be sucking in bubbles then blowing them into the display tank.

I have my glass baffle in place right now for the return pump section and I'm debating on whether or not to even put a baffle in on the other side.... maybe just have my drain line pouring into the sump via a spraybar arrangement. I need the glass on the side by the pump to keep the sand and junk out of the return pump. Thinking, thinking, thinki...... Ack, I pulled something,hehe

 

I'll get some pictures up pretty soon to show where I'm at...

[lizbeth]

Originally posted by glazer

The water really isn't going to be "falling over" the partition... it will in effect be flowing across,mixing of course with the baffled section.

 

Of course you are right. This concept is so new to me it's confusing. ??? I would think an entrance baffle would be a good thing. Some place to put media if it's ever needed. I think I'd make it thinner than in the pictures and loose the bio balls, using that area for occasional media.

 

I figured out the amount of water from the overflow up in the main tank is aprox. 2.3 gallons. The amount of water from the outlets up is 12.5 gallons.....there ain't no way the sump can hold that so I'll have to bring up the outlets like you suggested. I think I'm going to hang the CPR Bakpak on the sump, I've got it, I might as well use it.

 

Pictures please......this is making my brain hurt *rubbing temples*.

[Pulldownyourpants]

Thanks for the good looking sump pic there liz. Even better for me as that's probably the design I'll be using on my 30g. Now where do I put my skimmer???? As far as the bubbles from the over flow into the return pump chamber, couln't we just add another shorter baffle so that the taller baffle is first, then the shorter so that less bubbles get to the return pump? OH, I have an idea. If I buy the one I just saw today at the store which costs a mere $250, I could stick in the return area and not really have to worry about bubbles. I think it was a Kent something or other. Anyone got any comments on that skimmer?

 

 

And my 150g is 48"L, 36"H and 24"W. Light at the bottom would be a really big issue for corals but I think I'm going to stick with FOWLR for some years to come.

[glazer]

Well after TONS of messin' the sump is finally finished! I installed it on the tank and ran it for a couple of days and it all worked great so I took it down and permanently cemented all the fittings together. I'll set it back up and run it for a week or two just to make sure all is well before I add any sand or rock to it.... I DO NOT want to have to redo anything once I get to that point!..hehe

 

The sump is a AGA standard 10 gallon. The first compartment on the left is where the drain line dumps into the tank...actually dumps isn't the word, pours in gracefully...hehe I'll show this part later as it is all PVC line connected to the overflow on the tank. An Otto protein skimmer and IceProbe chiller are in this section. The middle section is formed by two glass pieces siliconed in... this area is the refugium part obviously. It will be holding sand/rubble/and macro's. Third compartment houses the return pump and 150 watt titanium heater. The return pump is a Mag 5. My return line is split.... one part running to the skimmer, second is of course line to the display tank. My plan was to just have the return pump furnish all flow and water movement in the display.... closing down the ball valve on the return line to match the flow of the overflow still left me plenty of power to drive the skimmer. I decided I wanted more water movement than this though so I am going to put one of the little AquaGlobe micro PH's in the tank and will put it on a digital timer to go on and off every ten minutes. I think this will work out really well.

 

Soooooo, heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's the sump/refugium!

[glazer]

One more pic.....

 

I'm going to be running the water level in the sump an inch or two above the clear tubing you see feeding the skimmer. This gave me NO bubble probs either in the drain section or return section... just a nice smooth flow across the whole thing.

 

I'm cutting some acrylic now to make a three section lid for it. Hope to cut down on evap this way but um, since it's very near the floor I need the lids to keep the damn dog from drinking out of it and the hair out as well....lol

[BCOrchidGuy]

Great looking set up Glazer but, one question, wouldn't it be better to have the skimmer before the refugium section so you don't remove beneficial stuff. Other than that it looks great, very nicely thought out....

[glazer]

Thanks BC.... well in theory you are prolly right. Trying to cram all that in a ten gallon tank and still keep it minimal and simple was definitely a challenge though. I'm sure I'll still have some "bugs" make it up to the display but my first and foremost concern is water quality and the added bonus of more water volume. I really wanted the 'fuge area for housing macros or even Xenia perhaps for nutrient export... the "bugs" were further down on the list,hehe.

I'm no hydraulic engineer by any means so it was more than likely all plain luck. But the way I have the return line split and fitted with ball valves... when I adjust my flow to the tank and get that where I want it I can actually shut the skimmer off completely and it doesn't effect the flow going up to the display....why I dunno but thought that was really an added bonus. I can shut the skimmer down for maintenance or feeding for example and not have to mess with the other setting. Sooooo, I may not run it 24/7... we shall see.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I'm just chuckling, you did it all in a 10 and I'm worried about having room in a 40 acrylic I just picked up.

[nanoman]

I just put together a 10gal sump for my 20. It works good except for the return line exploding with bubbles in the sump and makes a mess. I have tryed several things with no success. What is the secret?

[glazer]

Hey nano...

Well this is what I came up with, not perfect by any means but there is no "explosion" as you put it in the sump. I have a vent on the drain line (above water line in tank) that allows the overflow to draw smoothly... thing is I know of no design that would eliminate air going down the drain as well, just different measures taken to counteract it.

 

I T'd off my drain line and have one outlet at water level in the sump... it allows the air/water mixture to flow out pretty smoothly, yes there is some splashing/spray action going on, that's why I made a cover for the sump. Ideally if I had more room I would have loved to made like a horizontal spray bar/manifold type of thing that would evenly disharge the water across the surface, space limitations only allowed the "dump straight in" method though...lol

[nanoman]

Thanks for the reply. Great pic. I will try many different things much like you did and post my results. I tryed the spray bar but still created allot of bubbles and explostions every few minutes. I think the trick is to dispurse the air evenly. Easier said...

[J-Bass]

Why not use a filter sock for the overflow into the sump? Physh1 did it, and so will I. Now let's wonder why would Pete be trying to access a kiddie porn site for research for his autobiography????? Feel me...... Feel me.... touch me.... or however that Who song goes!