total plumbing idoit here

[dprais1]

total plumbing idoit here so sorry

thinking about setting up a 40 gallon sump for a 125 gallon reef ready tank with corner overflows.

1. will a 40L tank be big enough sump?

2. just some poret foam dividers and kaldness media with airstones and a 9.5 magdrive pump to return the water, good enough?

3. how do i split the water going back from sump, via the mag 9.5, to the tank to into two seperate 'return'? will i need some sort special fitting to ensure equal rates to each side?

I searched the plumbing and pumps thread back to 2008 and couldn't find good/clear answers.

[dprais1]

I will get some pics up sunday. today in daytime to get some thought on the plumbing I already have.

_thanks

[yusufm52]

Thumb rule for getting a sump is when there is a power outage the sump should hold the water which is going to drain into the sump. So let's say if ur tank is going to drain buy an 2" and say the water Qty is 20gal then ur sump should be able to hold this additional 20gals in addition to what it is already holding in normal operation. There is a video on youtube "how to build your sump." It's posted by Joey that's what I saw and built my sump and is running for a past 1mnth without any hiccups or water spills.. :)
Hope this helps you out.

Yusufm52
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[dprais1]

Thanks
answered a bunch of questions and created a few new ones. I will have to do a little more research and planning. or a lot more.

[dprais1]

What about a only Poret foam sump?


http://www.swisstropicals.com/Web%20pictures%20600%20dpi/Poret%20wet-sump%20filter.pdf

simple, cheap, easy, effective????

[yusufm52]

Don't know much about that sump but basically its just an over size canister filter with the cover, so you can pretty much put in whatever filter media you want in it. Whether it be only foam, or multiple stage filter. The reason why dumps are popular is because its very coustomizeable and much cheaper than getting a canister and all your heaters pumps and mess is away from your eyes and gives the tank a much cleaner look.

Yusufm52
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[dprais1]

That's what I like about the sump idea as well, the foam just seems really really easy, kaldness would be easy too. IDK just want to hear some feedback from users. I know I don't want to use the socks, pot scrubbers, ceramic or glass media etc.

I'm going to take the KISS approach with this.

[yusufm52]

Sorry for asking but what do you mean by KISS approach?

Yusufm52
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[dprais1]

Keep It Simple Stupid

[Brent1972]

That's what I like about the sump idea as well, the foam just seems really really easy, kaldness would be easy too. IDK just want to hear some feedback from users. I know I don't want to use the socks, pot scrubbers, ceramic or glass media etc.

I'm going to take the KISS approach with this.

Here is a picture of mine its the same as you are thinking about , Its 140L on a 1200L system and works a treat 74356

[dprais1]

thanks, more ideas!!!

[dprais1]

ok...i have four hol;es in my tank.
left side 1
left side2
right side 3
right side 4

thinking about 1 being the drain to the sump
2 capped off
3 return to the tank using 9.5 mag drive
4 being a water changing outlet.

sump consisting of a 20 gal tank with poret foam, sevral coarse, med, fine and ultra fine...

any ideas or problems noted?

[spiffyfish]

my next sump is going to be a fluidized one, just poret foam from swisstropics and kaldness. most effective and easiest to maintain from my research. ive had one with a filter sock and ceramic rings setup since january and it is a pain. the socks clog up so fast and the water overflows the sock. the best way to tell about the water level n the sump as far as highest water capacity that i have found is to just fill the tank with all pumps off and just let it overfill into the sump until your desired level and just do the same when you do water changes and you wont have a problem during a power outage.

[tbone007]

As far as the 4 holes I would use the two for overflows and two returns as designed.. This way you can keep the water flowing and keep the tank more cirulated and not have stagnate spots.. A 125 is a pretty long tank.. Just my thoughts though

[dprais1]

tbone007 that was my concern as well. its a tall 125 only 60 inches wide vs the typical 72 of most 125s. think it will still be an issue?

[dprais1]

here are some pics of the intake and output things

7438074381



I think they have all the safety feature (such as holes) what do you all think?

[strawberryblonde]

I used a 55L tank as a sump last year for my 115. It was way too much water, so I only filled it a little over half way. I'm pretty sure your 40L would be plenty big enough.

I also used poret foam, nothing BUT poret foam and let me tell ya, it was easy and fool proof. LOL

I bought 6 pieces of the finer foam and 2 pieces of the coarse 4" foam. (extras for other stuff!)

I placed 1 coarse foam piece on the intake side of the tank, leaving about 9" between it and the side of the tank. I then placed 2 of the finer foam pieces back to back about 6 inches apart from the first piece. Repeated the back to back (so that you end up with a 4" thickness of the finer foam pieces) foam one more time and that left me about 12-14" of space at the pump/outlet end of the sump where I could stuff the pump and a heater.

And that was it! I never, ever had a BB problem no matter how much beefheart I fed. Nitrates never went above 5ppm. There was plenty of room in the sump for overflow if the power went off too.

Oh, and about the power outage thing. I was using an overflow box and pvc pipe + pvc spray bar (all homemade) for my sump, so I just drilled a hole in the spray bar about 1 inch below the surface of the water in the tank.

During power outages or WC's, the water that drained back into the sump was never more than 10 gallons.

Other notes: I placed my unused sponge filters in between the middle poret foam dividers and let them run. It meant that I was aerating the tank as well as seeding the sponge filters to use on other tanks. Bonus!!! =)

[dprais1]

Perfect, i was hoping someone had tried that super-easy approach and had success. Looks like both my intake and output pipes already have holes drilled about an inch from the top.

thanks

[Lenin]

OK so for the 4 holes, two are intake, two are the returns, the intake one's should be bigger than the return, the reason why two are better than one is in case one is blocked the other one is still working, very rarely does it happen but it does, also helps with having the right flow, so I recommend keeping the two, below is my setup.

74383

[dprais1]

OK so for the 4 holes, two are intake, two are the returns, the intake one's should be bigger than the return, the reason why two are better than one is in case one is blocked the other one is still working, very rarely does it happen but it does, also helps with having the right flow, so I recommend keeping the two, below is my setup.

74383


On the return plumbing it looks like the line splits, reconnects and the splits again. why?

[Lenin]

The reason is that one has a check valve and the other has a ball valve.

Usually in most tanks the returns are actually below the water lines, so the check valve is there to make sure if the pumps fails all the water in the tank that's above the returns does not get back in the sump and flood the room.

But I also wanted the option when I wanted to, to open it so I can have that water drain down and have a lot of water coming back in to the sumps when I'm vacumming it, that way I have more water volume going into the sump to have time to get all the junk out of the sump.

So that was the way I did my return and the reasons why.

[dprais1]

great thanks

[Lenin]

Welcome.

BTW after this I would never do any other type of filtering for any of my tanks.

[dprais1]

I just read my thread again, guess i qualify as a plumbing idoit and a spelling idoit since i can't seem to put I-D-I-O-T in the correct order.