Ideas for sump design and plumbing (60G Reef tank)

[OMGclownfish]

Hello guys!

I decided to create this thread so you guys could give me ideas on my new sump design and plumbing. As title says, Im building a new 60G Reef tank, which is intended to be SPS dominated.

Main display dimensions: 90x50x50 (cm)

Internal overflow:
- Tank is gonna be against the wall so i wont have space at the back.
- 2 Drains (1'') - Herbie style
- 1 Return: Im not sure if I should do it 1/2'' or 3/4''. Drains and return are going to be hidden in the overflow box, so if I do it 3/4'' I will take more space in the display tank. But if I do it 1/2'', Im going to reduce the outlet of my return pump (Vectra m1) by almost 50%.

Sump: 77x47x40 (length, width, height)

Filtration:
-Red Sea Media Basket x2 with filter floss
-Protein Skimmer (Tunze Comline DOC 9004)
-Vectra M1 as return pump
- POSSIBLY running an Aquaforest Reactor with 3 media (gfo, carbon and zeo mix)


So i would really appreciate if you guys could make suggestions about the info i just provided, help with the sump design and plumbing.

Additional info:

- This is how my overflow is going to look. Dimensions are smaller than what my tank is gonna have.

 

[lapin]

I would go 3/4 on the return. Its better to me to have the option of reducing flow if 3/4 is too much. If 1/2 is not enough then you have to re-plumb the return.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Don’t start with a media reactor. You won’t be stocking your tank full to start and you won’t have a lot of bioload, test your nutrients and you can add a reactor at any time if you want. Once you get into the swing of things you can figure out how your tank behaves and go from there. I use no chemical media just an algae reactor to control nutrients. Other people have success in plenty of other ways and refugiums are pretty popular. I’m a fan of letting nature do the work it wants to. But if you start with chemical media on a new tank you can strip your nutrients to 0 and that’s not a good thing. Even hard to keep corals like some nitrate and phosphate. Check out some build threads. There will be plenty of people who have similar setups. One mistake I made early was trying to reinvent the wheel with my setup. Sounds like you are off to a great start with planning. Good luck and welcome to R2R!

 

[OMGclownfish]

I would go 3/4 on the return. Its better to me to have the option of reducing flow if 3/4 is too much. If 1/2 is not enough then you have to re-plumb the return.

The reason of going 3/4 on the return is to not reduce the output of the vectra by too much (dont know if this is actually an issue), going from 1'' to 3/4'' doesnt look that bad compared to 1'' to 1/2. Now, the downside of going 3/4'' is that the internal overflow would have to a little larger than if i had a 1/2 return. I dont think flow will be an issue since i can control it with the vectra controller.

Don’t start with a media reactor. You won’t be stocking your tank full to start and you won’t have a lot of bioload, test your nutrients and you can add a reactor at any time if you want. Once you get into the swing of things you can figure out how your tank behaves and go from there. I use no chemical media just an algae reactor to control nutrients. Other people have success in plenty of other ways and refugiums are pretty popular. I’m a fan of letting nature do the work it wants to. But if you start with chemical media on a new tank you can strip your nutrients to 0 and that’s not a good thing. Even hard to keep corals like some nitrate and phosphate. Check out some build threads. There will be plenty of people who have similar setups. One mistake I made early was trying to reinvent the wheel with my setup. Sounds like you are off to a great start with planning. Good luck and welcome to R2R!

Yeah i was thinking the same as you man. I will leave the manifolds just in case. Although im a little worried about altering the flow of the return output by manipulating the valves on the manifolds. Do you suggest letting them run open always, directing the water to the sump? So the flow output is going to be the same wether i put reactors or not.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

The reason of going 3/4 on the return is to not reduce the output of the vectra by too much (dont know if this is actually an issue), going from 1'' to 3/4'' doesnt look that bad compared to 1'' to 1/2. Now, the downside of going 3/4'' is that the internal overflow would have to a little larger than if i had a 1/2 return. I dont think flow will be an issue since i can control it with the vectra controller.




Yeah i was thinking the same as you man. I will leave the manifolds just in case. Although im a little worried about altering the flow of the return output by manipulating the valves on the manifolds. Do you suggest letting them run open always, directing the water to the sump? So the flow output is going to be the same wether i put reactors or not.

Nah. Leave them closed, the turnover you get through your display and sump really isn’t as big a deal as you would think. The most important part about it is not returning more water than your overflows can take. If you’re getting a reasonable turnover your water will basically all be homogenous and your filtration won’t have a problem. People used to base turnover rate by how much flow you wanted in the display, power heads have changed that.

 

[Super Fly]

I recommend reading this

Reef Tank Sump Design - gmacreef

A reef tank sump can take advantage of modern overflow methods to process water quietly and safely. It will also fail-safes in place to prevent floods.

gmacreef.com