trying to build a sump?

[reefking]

Do you need to build a overflow box if you are going to have a sump or can you do without it?

[mogurnda]

You need some way to get the water out of the main tank to the sump, and it needs to be balanced with the water being pumped back to the display. That means either drilling the main tank or having an overflow box. I suppose you could have the sump above the main tank and pump water up to it.

[reefking]

Dave did you build your sump yourself? I am making mine with an old ten gallon tank and just building the walls and refugium inside, I thought that the pump would bring water in and out of the tank, like a canister filter, am I wrong?

[mogurnda]

Yep, I built it myself. Can you really fit a sump, refugium and baffles in a 10? It was quite a squeeze in a 20, but my skimmer's pretty big.

You can't quite do it like a canister filter, since it's an open system. With a canister, the water is pumped out, which pulls water from the tank.

[reefking]

I would show you my diagram but I can't seem to convert the html file to jpg, can someone help?

[mogurnda]

Can you link to it?

[reefking]

Hey Dave, when I build the sump, I am really confused how the overflow tank is what gets the water circulating, I thought the pump does that. Can you please explain how does it work, this whole thing just seems really complex, building the sump seems easy, but hooking it up and getting it up and running and the whole overflow box thing confuses me?!?!?!?! :eek:

[mogurnda]

Like so many things, it's easy once you see it in action.

Water overflows either through a drilled hole in the tank or an overflow box into a pipe that leads to the sump. A pump, either in the sump or plumbed to a hole drilled in the sump, pumps water back up to the main tank. The pump really drives the whole process, because there will be no water to go through the overflow if the pump doesn't move water from the sump to the display.

melev's description may be better:http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

[reefking]

What keeps the water from overflowing out of the main tank and the sump? And the pump is always running right, because of melevs reef.com it shows a diagram and it shows the pump on then off, can you help me understand? Thanks

[mogurnda]

Maybe this will help. Go to the bathroom, plug the sink, and turn on the water.

wait...

wait...

wait...

Eventually the sink will fill up, but won't overflow because there is a drain up near the top that prevents it from overflowing. That is exactly what an overflow does.

Now, imagine that the water flowing out of that drain is going to a sump, rather than going to the sewer, and is being pumped back to the sink. The sink won't overflow because the drain keeps it from doing so. The sump won't overflow, because only the water above the level of the overflow/drain goes down there.

Any better?

[reefking]

yeah, I think I got it all, thanks!

[frankiefrank]

now that was a great way of explaining.