Adding a sump to an AIO

s0mthinG

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I have had my AIO tank for almost a year now, and it's been running wonderfully for the past 4 months. I have gone through all the hem and hawing and upgrading and tinkering. I have an extra 20g tall laying around and figured id be able to keep my water more stable if I more than doubled the water volume (tank is 15g) with a sump. I want to know if anyone here has any ideas on a good way to plumb into a sump from an AIO's back chambers.


Ideally, I would not have to drill holes (unsure if the back pane is tempered) as well as the fact that the tank is running and I don't want to mess around with that.

Should I get/make a HOB overflow box even though I already have the back chambers that have their own overflow system? Or can I just drop a U tube into one of the back chambers and send that down to the sump, then return through the outflow nozzle?

How would I control the rate at which the tank drains? What should I do so that I have an emergency drain in case the primary gets clogged?
 
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s0mthinG

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Was thinking something like this in the center chamber of the AIO system. Aquarium Overflow.png
 

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There are commercially available overflows that will do exactly what you are thinking about.

1616593526486.png



Siphon overflows do work, most of the time. The fundamental problem with all siphon overflows is they may not self start again if the return pump is shut off or the power is lost. You can increase the odds of the siphon restarting if you add a pump that removes any air. An aqualifter was the gold standard for that, but it has been discontinued. If the siphon overflow fails, the return pump will fill the tank until it runs dry in the sump. That usually floods your floor, and almost guaranteed that a 20 gallon sump on a 15 gallon tank will make a big mess in that scenario.


There are lots of people on here who have successfully used siphon overflow for years, and countless others who cleaned up a lot of water when the overflow failed. You can add a sump to an all in one tank with a siphon overflow, but what's your risk tolerance for the one time it doesn't work? Your tank, your call.
 
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s0mthinG

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If I use a level sensor that shuts off when the sump over fills (15 gallons full with 5 gal room for overflow) and put the level sensor at 17g and have that connected to shut off the return pump I think I'd be okay with that.

My question is I want to avoid purchasing a $100 overflow could I not just stick a u tube in my rear chamber and do a siphon with the air hole (with airline valve for adjustment) in the top. Then some sort of gate or ball valve to control the amount of flow into the sump?
Was also thinking of putting a valve on the return line to be able to fine-tune the flow rate as my pump only has 7 set speeds. both in conjunction together would double as a shut off if I need to disconnect the sump or take water from the display or sump without affecting the other.
 

Ratherbeflyen

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I like the idea of an optical sensor to shut off the return pump.

You can use pvc to build an overflow. I've never personally built one, but I know that on my bean animal overflow the gate valve was necessary. There was not enough adjustment precision with a ball valve.

 
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s0mthinG

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I like the idea of an optical sensor to shut off the return pump.

You can use pvc to build an overflow. I've never personally built one, but I know that on my bean animal overflow the gate valve was necessary. There was not enough adjustment precision with a ball valve.


This is good intel! I don't even know how I didn't think to check out Joey's channel for this. He has done almost anything with DIY and aquarium keeping anyone has ever thought of
 
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s0mthinG

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drill it. you dont have to empty the tank to do it. make sure its not tempered though
2 reasons I'm not going to.
1. I am unsure if it's tempered or not
2. I want to use the tank as a standard AIO for QT or holding tank when I finish my 40g custom
 
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s0mthinG

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I like the idea of an optical sensor to shut off the return pump.

You can use pvc to build an overflow. I've never personally built one, but I know that on my bean animal overflow the gate valve was necessary. There was not enough adjustment precision with a ball valve.


This design is fantastic and I actually bought the supplies for it yesterday! I did a dryfit and test in my bathtub with 3/4" PR200 (thinner wall) PVC as my drain, with a standard 1 1/2" as the base to it. It actually more or less kept up with the full flow rate of my bath faucet which is fantastic!

On top of that some design liberties I took were using street elbows for 3 of the connections so they could connect closer to the other fittings and I didn't have to deal with cutting small sections of pipe to attach the elbows together. 16169564505012937459966287407896.jpg 1616956539258764668427998488951.jpg I will also be adding a 3/4" ball valve to tune the drain to match the pump outflow rate as well as to serve as a shutoff point to keep more water in the DT. Either during a WC or if I need to take out the sump for maintenance.

I'll have to hear the whole thing in action before I decide if I want to DIY a silencer.

Sump construction is coming along well. I didn't have enough Lexan and silicone the right size to separate an overflow chamber and a filtration section but I will be adding a sock directly under the overflow plumbing. Which will be coming in through the cutout on the far left (not yet punched out), potential fuge light (or small reef light, in sump frags anyone?) can go on the glass section in the middle, return in the obvious return chamber after the 2 baffle bubble trap, and I thought heck, why not replace my 3 gal ATO container with a 3 gal compartment on the far right (the wall going all the way to the rim) and the cords and ato line will come out of the small gap on the very far right. 16169570308763261960131097047460.jpg 16169570598736748939840819563491.jpg

Lastly, the sump is a total volume of 20g , 3 taken out by the ATO reservoir, and only designed to be filled roughly 8-10" in the center chamber. This leaves 9.4g as the usable volume, and an extra 7.2g of incidental volume in case of pump malfunction. The tank should never be able to drain more than 1-2g based on how high I plan to place my return and drain so I should be good :)
 

Pistondog

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Ran a waterbox with the eshopps nano for year. Had to keep an eye on the siphon as the accumulated bubbles which don't get pulled thru with reduced flow.
Ended up getting a 20 g acrylic, to gain the 'aio' filter space and easy drilling.
 

OldRed1

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This design is fantastic and I actually bought the supplies for it yesterday! I did a dryfit and test in my bathtub with 3/4" PR200 (thinner wall) PVC as my drain, with a standard 1 1/2" as the base to it. It actually more or less kept up with the full flow rate of my bath faucet which is fantastic!

On top of that some design liberties I took were using street elbows for 3 of the connections so they could connect closer to the other fittings and I didn't have to deal with cutting small sections of pipe to attach the elbows together. 16169564505012937459966287407896.jpg 1616956539258764668427998488951.jpg I will also be adding a 3/4" ball valve to tune the drain to match the pump outflow rate as well as to serve as a shutoff point to keep more water in the DT. Either during a WC or if I need to take out the sump for maintenance.

I'll have to hear the whole thing in action before I decide if I want to DIY a silencer.

Sump construction is coming along well. I didn't have enough Lexan and silicone the right size to separate an overflow chamber and a filtration section but I will be adding a sock directly under the overflow plumbing. Which will be coming in through the cutout on the far left (not yet punched out), potential fuge light (or small reef light, in sump frags anyone?) can go on the glass section in the middle, return in the obvious return chamber after the 2 baffle bubble trap, and I thought heck, why not replace my 3 gal ATO container with a 3 gal compartment on the far right (the wall going all the way to the rim) and the cords and ato line will come out of the small gap on the very far right. 16169570308763261960131097047460.jpg 16169570598736748939840819563491.jpg

Lastly, the sump is a total volume of 20g , 3 taken out by the ATO reservoir, and only designed to be filled roughly 8-10" in the center chamber. This leaves 9.4g as the usable volume, and an extra 7.2g of incidental volume in case of pump malfunction. The tank should never be able to drain more than 1-2g based on how high I plan to place my return and drain so I should be good :)
Any updates on how the custom sump build went?
 

ptrusk

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Problem with PVC is you can’t see the air bubble forming in the U tube which is what breaks the siphon and or prevents it from restarting.
 
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