Settling Tank/Bin

[KenO]

So I'm getting closer to installing my 2 new aquariums and I came across some posts on detritus settling tanks. In my situation, when I was building my new house I was able to have a dedicated room for my aquariums. That's the good news, the only downside is that the room is 45 feet away from my family room tank and 25 feet away from the 2nd tank. The house has no basement and the floor is concrete. So during the construction process I was able to get an in floor sump pit built out of concrete. The pit is 48" long, 48" deep and 32" wide. It was suppose to be 36", but the concrete guy made a slight error. It will still work. My plan is to coat the concrete with a fish safe liquid membrane. I ran high flex PVC lines to both of the tanks. Both the drain lines and the return lines for the tanks go into the sump pit. The lines drain lines were pitched to allow for gravity drains from the tanks. One of my concerns is with the sump below floor level, how would I easily keep the bottom of it clean of detritus.

Now behind and above the in floor sump, I do have a space to put a 30 gallon Brute garbage can. I was thinking that maybe I can use that can/bin to act as a settling tank/bin to capture detritus. I did install an in floor drain and I could then using gravity, drain the detritus buildup at the bottom of the bin into the floor drain.

I put some images together to show what I was thinking and the steps needed. Let's see if I can get the images uploaded. Feedback is welcomed.

 

[Mandelstam]

Here's my thoughts on your system and the problems I see with it

- You collect a lot of detritus without removing it from the system, so it can still cause problems.
- You use a very large volume filter to do what a pair of filter socks can do just as easily.

I think you can use that 30g brute more efficiently than just using it as a giant detritus trap. Add a good algae growing light and throw in some chaeto for instance. Your design would still work but as a macro algae refugium instead. My 2 cents! :)

 

[KenO]

Here's my thoughts on your system and the problems I see with it

- You collect a lot of detritus without removing it from the system, so it can still cause problems.
- You use a very large volume filter to do what a pair of filter socks can do just as easily.

I think you can use that 30g brute more efficiently than just using it as a giant detritus trap. Add a good algae growing light and throw in some chaeto for instance. Your design would still work but as a macro algae refugium instead. My 2 cents! :)

Interesting idea with the chaeto. I will need to think about doing that. Thanks.