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View Full Version : Please critique my sump design


snewcrash
12/01/2009, 06:25 PM
I have a 75 gallon display tank and the sump is 55 gallon. I calculated that 6.5 gallons is the amount that will drain down with the return pump turned off so that's where I came up with the height for the baffles.

Here's what I have come up with so far. Can you guys find anything wrong with it? How much space should be under the middle piece of glass in the baffle? Thanks in advance!

http://www.porfusion.com/snewcrash/Sump_Design2.jpg

Playa-1
12/01/2009, 07:11 PM
It looks good to me. You might want to leave an inch between the baffles on the bubble trap.

snewcrash
12/01/2009, 07:15 PM
It looks good to me. You might want to leave an inch between the baffles on the bubble trap.

I'll leave an inch horizontally between the pieces of glass, but how far above the bottom of the sump should the middle piece be? 1 inch?

Playa-1
12/01/2009, 07:24 PM
Ya, an inch should do it.

jjstecchino
12/01/2009, 08:29 PM
As a practical note, a sump taller than about 16" makes it very difficult to do any work inside.

You should gauge the height of the baffles on the right of the skimmer compartment depending on your skimmer optimal working depth if you plan on locating the skimmer on the floor of the sump which is the easiest solution. Usually these baffles are approximately 9" high.

Names Brucey
12/01/2009, 08:58 PM
Looks pretty good to me. I am considering an almost identical set up but am concerned about accessing it in my stand though.

SharkBait_Mtl
12/01/2009, 09:13 PM
I would make the distance in between the baffles the thickness of my hand. I usually use 2x4 to space my baffles. (here in Canada a 2x4 is actually 1.5x3.5)

It jusk makes it easier to clean or get something that fell in between the baffles.

I once had a small anemone that for some reason decided to dislodge itself and it ended up going done the drain and reattaching it self on one of the baffles overnight.
:eek:

Bud Reeferman
12/01/2009, 10:11 PM
More room in the skimmer area. Less room in the return area (only needs to be 6-8" wide for pipe and bioballs.)

Remember you'll need room in the skimmer area for the skimmer and pump, reactors and pumps, and lots of other stuff you might grow into.

snewcrash
12/01/2009, 10:19 PM
As a practical note, a sump taller than about 16" makes it very difficult to do any work inside.

You should gauge the height of the baffles on the right of the skimmer compartment depending on your skimmer optimal working depth if you plan on locating the skimmer on the floor of the sump which is the easiest solution. Usually these baffles are approximately 9" high.

I'm going to sit my skimmer on eggcrate so it's at it's level. I have a really tall stand so there's no issues with overhead clearances, so that should be ok right? I really want to make the return as deep as possible since I won't have an ATO.

jb61264
12/02/2009, 12:00 AM
This is exactly the setup I have had running now for 6 months. My refugium is used to host some chaeto macro algae and I have a brittle star, a couple hermits, snails and other things in there. My original plan was to have a smaller mantis shrimp in my refugium but I can't find one at the moment.

I used 2x4's to space my baffles...be sure to use glass and not acrylic for the baffle plates.

Snakebyt
12/02/2009, 12:29 AM
here is a pic of my old sump made out of a 55 gallon tank
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii13/snakebyt/fullsumplist.jpg

Frick-n-Frags
12/02/2009, 01:17 AM
i always ended up having serious long-term problems the couple times i kept a light anywhere near my dark sump equipment. the 100% dark sump and sump area has worked out way better for me. chaeto tub/fuge/w/e stays outside of the 100% dark sump area now. that's my only critique.

SharkBait_Mtl
12/02/2009, 06:57 AM
i always ended up having serious long-term problems the couple times i kept a light anywhere near my dark sump equipment. the 100% dark sump and sump area has worked out way better for me. chaeto tub/fuge/w/e stays outside of the 100% dark sump area now. that's my only critique.

what kind of problems?

from what i have learned over the years is that it is better to have the fuge on reverse light cycle to the DT for better pH stability. if you take the fuge out of the sump area, it wont be a true reverse light cycle unless the fuge is in a lightless room.

please correct me if I am wrong.

Frick-n-Frags
12/02/2009, 08:18 AM
algae. it eventually accumulates like in hoses and on things. it just added to the messed up sump momentum and required more maintenance to keep cleaned out

then the light itself corroded badly vs outside sump lamps of the same type


reverse cycle lighting: why do you do this? do you really know?

I had to think that through for myself too.
here's my thought when i considered doing that: so the bad algae in the DT is sleeping, using O2, releasing CO2. OK so what. minimal amounts of algae make minimal impact of the buffer reserve, and it is just CO2 which is stripped with decent water motion anyway. I want to hurt this algae the most i can. so why would i be oxygenating the water for them with a reverse lit fuge? and while the fuge is sleeping, why would i provide extra C02 to help the DT algae while the fuge is sleeping? AND why would i not want the fuge right in there at the same time as the DT algae competing for the nutrients?

anyway, i thought that reverse cycle would be of no benefit to my system.

i would go with 24hr(couple hr rest is cool for all plants actually but...) before i did the reverse cycle.


edit: just regarding complicated crammed sump setups. the maintenance wore me down after several years. that really sucked a lot of the fun out of it. granted i dont have a livingroom display which gives me more freedom to spread out, but after a while you just dont want to fool with it like at first.
FWIW, my sump is now a single tub. it contains skimmer, couple rocks with non-photos in return flow, and return pump on soft plumbing.
sump maintenance, as in replacing the entire tub once every 2 years-ish takes me <5 minutes after draining it to swap for a new tub just lifting and replacing 3 basic things. couple periodic siphonings in there when stuff is accumulating in the corners, and that's it. no further cleaning anything down there because nothing is really growing down there except featherworms etc. i can do this forever. maintenance is the hard part of going the long haul for me so i try to reduce the complexity of it.

snewcrash
12/02/2009, 08:53 AM
here is a pic of my old sump made out of a 55 gallon tank
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii13/snakebyt/fullsumplist.jpg


Thanks for the picture! One of my biggest concerns is the return area. I'm not running an ATO so I'd like a return area that doesn't have to be refilled every single day due to evaporation. How often did you have to fill that return?

snewcrash
12/02/2009, 09:11 AM
This is exactly the setup I have had running now for 6 months. My refugium is used to host some chaeto macro algae and I have a brittle star, a couple hermits, snails and other things in there. My original plan was to have a smaller mantis shrimp in my refugium but I can't find one at the moment.

I used 2x4's to space my baffles...be sure to use glass and not acrylic for the baffle plates.

Thanks, I just ordered glass baffles. Any chance you could post some pictures of your setup? I'm starting to think about plumbing and would love to see a 75 gal display with 55 gallon sump.