Is this sump too big??

[shred5]

Is that PVC?
I have worked with acrylic but never that.
Are you bracing it around the top? There could be a lot of stress on that middle baffle without some top bracing.
My concern with a run that long and not allot of cross bracing is bowing?
The material looks a little thin. I believe PVC is more flexible?
Edges look a little ruff too..

Again I have only worked with acrylic sheets and I am not even close to a expert.
Just a few things that would concern me.
Looks great.
Should have put this is the DYI forum if you are looking for help on construction.

 

[PaulPerger]

I run a jebao dcp18000 internal from my basement up 27ft of head (equivalent including the horizontal runs of 19 ft) and get 850gph at 83% power.

Going strong for 6 months, cleaned it once and hasn’t wavered. People don’t necessarily need to spend 3x the price on a reefflo .

I am very glad to read this... I just ordered the same pump to move SW and RODI to my tank from the basement WC Station. I have about a 12 foot rise, but a 60 foot horizontal run. Considering I am not using this pump for flow in the tank, it sounds like I'll have plenty of power to get the water where it needs to be!

 

[PaulPerger]

Is that PVC?
I have worked with acrylic but never that.
Are you bracing it around the top? There could be a lot of stress on that middle baffle without some top bracing.
My concern with a run that long and not allot of cross bracing is bowing?
The material looks a little thin. I believe PVC is more flexible?
Edges look a little ruff too..

Again I have only worked with acrylic sheets and I am not even close to a expert.
Just a few things that would concern me.
Looks great.
Should have put this is the DYI forum if you are looking for help on construction.

This is a mockup of the sump... not the actual sump, nor final build material.

 

[User]

I am very glad to read this... I just ordered the same pump to move SW and RODI to my tank from the basement WC Station. I have about a 12 foot rise, but a 60 foot horizontal run. Considering I am not using this pump for flow in the tank, it sounds like I'll have plenty of power to get the water where it needs to be!

Yeah, it’ll be fine, then some

 

[GK3]

Never too big ( room for every component and reactor !! Mine is 84"

Why is there a yellow tang in that tiny area of your sump? You know fish go in the display tank, right?:)

 

[stevieduk]

Absolutely correct. I always think of the "big one" in an urgent situation. Plus, I overstock x3. It's not easy, but it's pretty.

how do you get away with having that carpet nem in your tank . mine ate everything . I swear it used to reach up and catch fish as they swam past it

 

[vetteguy53081]

Why is there a yellow tang in that tiny area of your sump? You know fish go in the display tank, right?:)

There getting a time out for being a jerk. There is live rock and fresh caulerpa for him to munch on. Tiny area??? - That portion of sump is 2 feet long X 24" Wide

 

[ChrisW]

There getting a time out for being a jerk. There is live rock and fresh caulerpa for him to munch on. Tiny area??? - That portion of sump is 2 feet long X 24" Wide

In the time out box you go! I ordered 7" cups to replace the socks from 2fishies and filled it w/ Bioballs, Purigen pack, and then topped it off w/ some polyfill to help w/ filtration and then run the phos reactor return back into the polyfill. Its much easier than dealing w the constant rotation of socks which looks like you would end up doing alot

 

[Wayne's Reef]

I’ve been running a 220 gal sump on a 265 DT for 3 years and never regretted it!

 

[Jollibee209]

More space for stuff in the sump is definitely better !

 

[Mark Novack]

Please show some picks of your tank Love seeing clown triggers in reefs looks amazing

Sure thing. Hope this isn't like hijacking, but there is room I think.

 

[Mark Novack]

how do you get away with having that carpet nem in your tank . mine ate everything . I swear it used to reach up and catch fish as they swam past it

I think that the A. Clarkiis do a lot. They aggress any fish getting to close. However, I'm actually think about taking it out. It does present a danger and it glues anything that it touches, mostly my feeding tongs and shrimp meant for the morays.

 

[Carz]

Well I moved on to the second mock up. Total dimensions are 48 x 22 x 16. Total of about 75 gallons. This is shorter than the first mock up but only about 5 gallons less in volume. I am liking the 7" filter socks for easier cleaning and now thinking of placing this sump under the tank instead of in the basement. The refugium is approx 17x22. This is the area that I want to be as big as possible and from looking at other sumps this seems like a good size.

 

[Aardvark1134]

some people want the refugium to hold a deeper amount of water than the skimmer and some want the water in both to be about 8 inches.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well I moved on to the second mock up. Total dimensions are 48 x 22 x 16. Total of about 75 gallons. This is shorter than the first mock up but only about 5 gallons less in volume. I am liking the 7" filter socks for easier cleaning and now thinking of placing this sump under the tank instead of in the basement. The refugium is approx 17x22. This is the area that I want to be as big as possible and from looking at other sumps this seems like a good size.

NICE MOCKUP. I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE ACTUAL ACRYLIC. GREAT JOB

 

[Brett S]

Well I moved on to the second mock up. Total dimensions are 48 x 22 x 16. Total of about 75 gallons. This is shorter than the first mock up but only about 5 gallons less in volume. I am liking the 7" filter socks for easier cleaning and now thinking of placing this sump under the tank instead of in the basement. The refugium is approx 17x22. This is the area that I want to be as big as possible and from looking at other sumps this seems like a good size.

Seeing this I have a couple of thoughts... first, the partition after the large middle section is way too low. Not only will it keep the water level in your fuge and skimmer sections very low, but it will significantly decrease the overall water volume in your sump.

Furthermore it will decrease the water volume in your return chamber as well. You want as much water volume as you can get in the return chamber (within reason) because that is where the water level will drop as water evaporates. If you don’t have an ATO that means that you’ll need to top off the tank very frequently or risk the return pump running dry. If you do have an ATO then it gives you a very small safety margin in the event that the ATO fails or you accidentally let it run dry.

I would try to raise the overall water level in the sump as much as you can.

Second, the second partition in the return chamber really isn’t doing anything. The return pump sucks the water from the bottom of that section anyway, so it’s not really going to function as a bubble trap. I would either remove it entirely or add a third ‘over’ partition so the water from the fuge goes over, under, over to get to the return pumps. That would be a much more effective bubble trap.

One thing that I did when I designed my sump was to make the water level in the filter sock chamber and the skimmer chamber as high as possible and then make the water flow over a partition between the skimmer chamber and the fuge where the water level would drop a bit. This allows the water level in the skimmer chamber to remain at a constant level whether the return pump is running or not. When the return pump is turned off the backflow fills up the return and fuge chambers, but the water level in the skimmer chamber is high enough that it is not affected. This prevents the skimmer from needing to be turned off or overflowing when the return pump is turned off.

Finally, I used glass for my sump, but I made the partitions on either side of the fuge out of dark smoked glass. The dark color helps prevent a lot of light from leaking into the other chambers in the sump and helps prevent algae from growing outside the fuge chamber.

Overall though it looks like a great sump design and I think it will do well for you:)

 

[DangerDave]

I was considering 7" socks but never used them but you do make a good point with the cleaning of them

If you have room, I use 7x32 socks. You can get them in 100 micron mesh from amazon.

 

[Mark Novack]

Filter socks work great but need cleaning very often. Have you thought about incorporating an auto rolling filter? I have the Theiling but there are smaller ones for 1/3rd the cost that are really good. Now is a great moment to design it in.

Mark

Mark

 

[Aardvark1134]

I would use 7 inch high flow filter cups over 7 inch filter socks. They fit in the same spot for most sumps.

 

[Carz]

Here is a pic of the sump I built for my 75. I was kinda going with this style. This finished pic should show how it works with controlling the water levels. I do like the idea of adding the roller filter.