how to pick sump size?

[cichlid_guy]

ok, how do i decide what size sump i want. the tank is a 150 gal tall.
48L x 31H x 24W

i am going to have two 1.25" stand pipes and i want to flow about 1000gph.

what size sump do i need?
i'm sure a 30gal is two small.
i plan to build it but need a size.

scottie

[Cearbhaill]

You make it up- really.

I'm new to SW but as I understand it the size is whatever you can accomodate. I have seen 150g tanks with 30g sumps, and 30g tanks with 150g sumps.
Most folks are limited to whatever size sump/container will fit under the display tank while others have their "mechanical room" in a remote location.

Have you any limits as to size?
Are you planning to incorporate a refugium in the sump?
Does there need to be room for an in sump skimmer or will it be external?
If the skimmer is in sump what is its footprint?

Things to think about...

Edit: I see this is in a FW forum so now I am confused.
Is this for marine or freshwater?
If freshwater then skip the skimmer questions, but all else should apply.

[cichlid_guy]

well, i haven't decided on what will go in it. i have the chance to get all plexi i need for tank and sump for free. so i'm going to build it and ether store it till later or decide after built.

scottie

[slipknottin]

30 gallon is big enough, but it depends what you want the sump for.

[RTR]

My primary requirement for sumps is that they have sufficient footprint to absorb all the power-off draindown of the displaywith a wide margin of safety for flood avoidance.

The next requirements would all be dependent on the intended use of the sump - housing a W/D tower, serving as a refugium, housing probes and heaters, serving as a veggie filter, etc. - or any combination of those.

[cichlid_guy]

how do i fingure out how much water will drain down after shut down?
is there a way of figuring it out?

scottie

[Cearbhaill]

I did my computation in a backasswards way, but it worked.

We know that gallons = width x height x depth divided by 231, right?

So I figured how much water my display tank held per each inch of height- 48" long, 18" deep, and 1 inch of height (divided by 231) = 3.7g.
So I need 3.7 gallons of space in my sump per inch of water drained out of the display.

My sump per inch is 48" long x 12" deep x 1 inch of depth (divided by 231) = 2.49 gallons per inch of water.
So for every 1 inch of water that drains out of the display when the power goes off I need 1.48 inches of room in my sump.

Now- how much water will drain when you shut off the power?
That depends on the height of your overflow, where you put your siphon break, and maybe other things- I don't know. I figured 2 inches to be on the safe side, so I need room in my sump for an extra 7.4g when the power goes off.
Knowing that each inch in my sump represents 2.49g, and I need room for 7.4g, I divided 7.4 by 2.49 and knew I needed an extra 3 inches of room in my sump. I find that I have lots of room to spare.

Told you I did it in a convoluted way.
There might be a chart for this somewhere, but this is how I did it.

Edit: to clarify

[DEmigh]

Cearbhaill,

I'm going to award you an honorary Math Ed. degree, for what it's worth :soda:

[cichlid_guy]

that dose help!!
thanks

scottie

[slipknottin]

You can always cheat and use a calculator

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/sump.php


;)

[cichlid_guy]

thats what i was looking for!!!!!!!
a min. of sump size i need.

for a 150 gal tall tank that has a 2" above stand.
flowing at 1000gph i would need a min. of 20gal tank. so i'll make a min. of 30 gal.
maybe 40 gal. i got room under the tank.

thanks

scottie

[cichlid_guy]

NEW QUESTION

I was doing some calc. amd did the one for Stand pipe size.

it said for 1000gph i needed min. 1.31" pipe. so Dual 1.25 will work great!

but it had a Min. Linear Overflow Size.
15" ????

what is that? the lenght of the pipe?

scottie

[slipknottin]

Originally posted by cichlid_guy

but it had a Min. Linear Overflow Size.
15" ????

what is that? the lenght of the pipe?

Thats the amount of water that the overflow can handle, its calculated by measuring the top overflow section. Usually the length x width of the overflow. (you also need to factor in the slits in the top)

Heres an article on overflows. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/gt/index.htm

[Duke107]

Woo, Woo, Whats this topic all about?

What is a sump for? Seriously I'm curious. Is this a Bio filtration tank? If so ahhh.

I was looking at the design ideas for this tank, I'm assuming it is a bio filtration tank, I was thinking why do you require such large tanks to do this? For flooding in the event the power goes out to the pump? Why not use a pressure valve, in essense, the pump pressure is required to keep a ball loaded by a spring open, pump goes out, spring pushs ball closed not flood.

Maybe I'v got this all wrong?

[Duke107]

Woo, Woo, Whats this topic all about?

What is a sump for? Seriously I'm curious. Is this a Bio filtration tank? If so ahhh.

I was looking at the design ideas for this tank, I'm assuming it is a bio filtration tank, I was thinking why do you require such large tanks to do this? For flooding in the event the power goes out to the pump? Why not use a pressure valve, in essense, the pump pressure is required to keep a ball loaded by a spring open, pump goes out, spring pushs ball closed not flood.

Maybe I'v got this all wrong?

[RTR]

Duke - the nature of mechanical devices is to fail. Properly sizing a sump can save you beaucoup de dollars and hassle.

As to what a sump is for, see my earlier post in this thread.