Need help Sump Design, Will this work?
- Thread starter masterkaw
- Start date
No, its going to change to basically your first design. Right now I have an 1100gph pump on my return, pushing about 850gph after head losses. I'm going to use that for a closed loop system and get a smaller pump, about 350-500gph, for my return pump. Right now I'm pretty much overloading my single 1" overflow, and get a lot of microbubbles through the sump.
I wanted a DSB for denitrification purposes.
I wanted a DSB for denitrification purposes.
Alright here are pics of my sump. The pattern is skimmer ---> return pump <---- fuge.
In the first pic you can see the relative size of each compartment. I have it set up like your last drawing, with the drain splitting with a ball valve to adjust flow. I only used one ball valve, on the fuge line. My skimmer is in the middle compartment because originally I had it operating in HOB mode off the end of the sump, and it kept overflowing and dumping water all over my floor. I omved it so now if it overflows, the water just ends up back in the sump. Note the sand depth in the fuge, and the "full" line on the side of the tank. I know that as long as the water level is below this line when everything is running, the sump will not overflow when power is cut off.
Here you can see the plumbing coming down. The hard line with the union is the drain, the hose is the return.
Here you can see the pipe going over and down into the fuge.
In the first pic you can see the relative size of each compartment. I have it set up like your last drawing, with the drain splitting with a ball valve to adjust flow. I only used one ball valve, on the fuge line. My skimmer is in the middle compartment because originally I had it operating in HOB mode off the end of the sump, and it kept overflowing and dumping water all over my floor. I omved it so now if it overflows, the water just ends up back in the sump. Note the sand depth in the fuge, and the "full" line on the side of the tank. I know that as long as the water level is below this line when everything is running, the sump will not overflow when power is cut off.
Here you can see the plumbing coming down. The hard line with the union is the drain, the hose is the return.
Here you can see the pipe going over and down into the fuge.
Sploke, what design do you think is better? My thing is that I built a stand for my fish tank and I can't finish putting the top on until I finish the sump. The sump will not fit thru the doors, so I need to slide it from the top. That been said, I need to make sure I make it right the first time because once it is in place, it will be hard to make changes (not impossible). So any advice at this point will be GREATLY appreciated.
Do you think I should make less space for the return pump and more for the fuge? I want to keep the skimmer side at about 8 inches, so I have room for a better skimmer down the road.
Do you think I should make less space for the return pump and more for the fuge? I want to keep the skimmer side at about 8 inches, so I have room for a better skimmer down the road.
Well its kind of a toss-up between fuge space and return pump space. You want as much area as possible for the fuge, for obvious reasons. But, since all the evaporation shows up in your return pump area, if you make it too small, you end up topping off every day with evaporation. I just split the difference and made them both the same size.
As far as which is better...well with enough tweaking you could probably get great results with either. The changes I am making will make the sump simpler though, which is always better, and will reduce the flow through the sump. However, it comes at the cost of having to either add a bunch of powerheads, or build a closed-loop system (which iswhat I am opting for).
As far as which is better...well with enough tweaking you could probably get great results with either. The changes I am making will make the sump simpler though, which is always better, and will reduce the flow through the sump. However, it comes at the cost of having to either add a bunch of powerheads, or build a closed-loop system (which iswhat I am opting for).
