DIY Sump

[underdog5004]

Hey guys, I know this kind of thing has been done to death, but I just wanted to make sure that my design was acceptable. And, of course, many eyes makes design flaws shallow.

I want to put a 10 or 15 gallon tank under my 55g tank to act as a sump, with an overflow box supplying water to the sump, and a pump to pump water back into the main tank. I'm also thinking about keeping yellow shrimp in part of the sump, as a kind of freshwater refugium. I'm not super sure about it, but in my pics I added a foam prefilter onto the pump, just in case.

So, have at it!

Picture 1 is the first design I came up with

and here's another design,

 

[exodon king]

is this going to be for FW?

 

[underdog5004]

Yes, it's a freshwater sump. I don't have any money right now, so saltwater is out of the question

 

[exodon king]

 

[Kristall-99]

Return Pump area imo, inst big enough, either take some space away in the mech filter or refu. Also I would set the return pump vertical. Putting a 90deg fitting that close to the pump will kill your flow. (something I learned in watercooling)

This is referring to the last sump design

the first two sumps. Id combine the 2nd entry with the first diagram, add some panels to direct flow and allow the water to flow through the filter/bio balls etc like in your first picture. Also separate your refu from your pump. If its not a refu, then id still seperate the gravel/shrimp, pump + gravel = death and horrible screeching noice from your pump.

 

[exodon king]

BAHAHAHA. It was a 5second sketch, not a professional draft.

First, the pump area only needs to be large enough to house the pump. Even if those were exact dimensions it would be fine.
Next. Most return pumps have the output facing up, not off to the side. Again, it was a quick sketch.
Also, adding a 90 degree elbow next to the pump will not have any negative effect on the pump. These pumps are rated to run with back pressure due to depth/ plumbing/ and how high it needs to pump. this is called the "pump head". Any 90 degree elbow in your Plumbing will account for 1' of pump head. As long as you have the proper pump, you can have as many elbows in the plumbing, wherever you need them.

Thanks for trying though.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Relative size I think the chamber is fine (turn the pump clockwise). I would say though that in actuality with a 10/15g tank those chambers are going to be really small. Esp once you start adding baffles and the 1-1.5 inches in between.

You looking at 16-24 inches total with 4 chambers, 5 baffles and 2 bubble traps.

I also prefer to have my return chamber much higher. Also lifting the pump on an eggcrate rack.

Just MO

 

[exodon king]

Quite frankly, you would need a 15-20g sump for a 55g display.
Also, if your doing a 10g sump, you don't really have enough space for a functional FW refugium. So unless you ate going with a 15L +, I would cut it out all together.
With a basic wet/dry you would just need to make a quick bio tower on one half, and put the pump in the other half of the tank. No baffles needed.

 

[underdog5004]

Quite frankly, you would need a 15-20g sump for a 55g display.
Also, if your doing a 10g sump, you don't really have enough space for a functional FW refugium. So unless you ate going with a 15L +, I would cut it out all together.
With a basic wet/dry you would just need to make a quick bio tower on one half, and put the pump in the other half of the tank. No baffles needed.

Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm thinking Filter Floss, bio-media, then a baffle into the pump area?

 

[exodon king]

doesn't get much easier than this. (unless you go with the steralite drawer/ rubbermaid tub method)

your spraybar would fall onto some kind of drip tray (plastic pegboard works well, or you can just buy a piece of plexiglass and drill holes in it). you would put your filter pads/ filter floss on top of the drip tray for mechanical filtration. the water drips over the bio-balls, and the eggcrate tray holding it back up.
the dripping water will areate the water, witout creating any microbubbles in the sump portion of the filter.