I need help with something!..

[sheldonsreef]

I have been running a canister filter for 12 months and with regular maintenance and frequent water changes, has been extremely successful, with a clean looking tank and great coral growth. But I feel the time has come to upgrade to a sump. And i have a couple of questions!

1. Is it possible using my current tank. My tank is a 60G bowfront, with two predrilled holes in the bottom. The inlet to my filter is approximately half way up my tank, but can be adjusted. My outlet is at the surface.

2. If it is possible, do I have to drain the tank? Or by some miracle can this be done without draining.

This is my current set up,
Dan

 

[mtraylor]

So if I see this right. Your drain is drilled into the back wall of the glass. Is that correct? If so if you have a threaded union, you can basically make a plug and thread it in. You an also do this with a slip.

 

[jsker]

How about a picture of the overflow from the top down

 

[mtraylor]

Oh if you have overflows ,then you make the change over with no issues of draining the tank. Not a problem.

 

[sheldonsreef]

I have no overflow, just a drain about half way down the tank. My canister draws water from here, then pumps it back up top

 

[Playa-1]

The shortest pipe will determine how much water will drain back to the sump during a power outage. I would carefully plan out how to proceed. You may be able to remove the pipes or pipes without draining the tank, depending on how they are secured. If they are glued in place then you will likely need to drain the tank. If they have threaded fittings or are just pressure fitted then you may be able to do the job without draining it. Either way your going to want to reconfigure the length of the shorter pipe and or add an overflow box.

 

[Playa-1]

Another option would be to cap off the shorter pipe and use an external overflow

 

[Maacc]

You probably want to reconfigure that, as your strainer will be where the water level will go anytime you have a power outage, or return pump failure/cleaning. I would take the opportunity of adding the sump to make that intake higher within a couple of inches of the surface and ensure your new sump can take that much water with no danger of an overflow.
Actually you probably want to do it even if you keep the canister as you could have a disaster if some part of your canister filter leaked/failed.

 

[WVNed]

I would use them both as drains and return over the top. Add a coupler to the short pipe and add a length of pipe to it to bring it up. Then you would have a main and emergency drain and could tune it to be silent.

 

[mtraylor]

Oh ok. Yeah. If you wanted to use your existing setup as others told you, you would need a stand pipe to pull water closer to the surface. This would be for when the power was off so that all your water in the aquarium doesn't drain into your sump. Assuming your sump could handle all that water. Plan as others stated above for that. I see threads, so you could make a plug for that when you do your work. I think an external overflow would work better for you. That way you could use that drain you have now for an additional return and you could put a check valve on that. Much better layout.

 

[sheldonsreef]

Oh ok. Yeah. If you wanted to use your existing setup as others told you, you would need a stand pipe to pull water closer to the surface. This would be for when the power was off so that all your water in the aquarium doesn't drain into your sump. Assuming your sump could handle all that water. Plan as others stated above for that. I see threads, so you could make a plug for that when you do your work. I think an external overflow would work better for you. That way you could use that drain you have now for an additional return and you could put a check valve on that. Much better layout.

Thank you everyone for your help
So, how would I go about plumbing this? My knowledge is fairly limited! If I was to go with an external overflow and use the existing drain for an additional return?

 

[mtraylor]

If you have an external overflow. Then all the water from the aquarium would be coming from the overflow box to your sump depending on which one you bought and how you configured it (traditional, herbie, etc). From your return pump you could run single or dual return. If single, you could run a Y in the aquarium to distribute flow and you would have to have a check valve on the return to prevent water from coming back into the aquarium when the pump was off. I would also have a ball valve for pump replacement etc.