5 gallon sump. help

[jenniferroman]

i want to make a 5 gallon sump for my 60 gallon reef tank. i have a canister filter and i want to use it as the overflow. i have a 350 canister filter from marineland. i wanted to know how do i go about this. also what equipment do i need. i want to put in the sump a heater, culerpa, protein skimmer, mud sand, and some live rock

 

[rocker92]

i think you need a 10 gal or 15 gal sump for a 60gal tank, bigger is better, not sure about the canister thing tho.

 

[fsn77]

A 5g sump on a 60g will take some very careful planning, due to the fact that so much water will drain from the 60g into the 5g sump during a power outage or other interruption of the return pump. Considering how much water drains from our 50g and 90g tanks (separate tanks with separate sumps), I don't think this is very feasible (or practical considering all that you intend to put in the sump) with a 5g sump because it will not have enough reserve space in it to hold the water that will drain from the 60g until the water level is below the overflow while the return pump is off.