My two new custom above tank gravity drain sumps....so happy

This custom sump was designed by me with assistance from Glasscages.com. They do both glass and acrylic jobs. I merely got in touch, sent off my sketches, and then we chatted abt various facets of the plan. This pic shows my 48”long x 13” high x 10”wide unit for my 75g tank w recessed lids, precut holes for my bulkheads in/out and hole for hoses/wires to go through. The recessed lids keep all the condensation inside the unit. There are two 21/2” outlets for gravity drainage into tank on the right and one 11/2” inlet for pumped water from the tank at left. The left chamber holds mech filtration w bioballs (aerobic bacteria). The second chamber has Matrix and Biohome (anaerobic bacteria). The third has three algae scrubbers for additional nitrate removal (two HOG3s and a SURF 2x floater. The fourth chamber has my Nitrate reactor w DeNitrate (anaerobic bacteria). The fifth chamber is really cool bc it’s nothing but a shallow drainage area to the outlets. One outlet does the drainage work while the other is merely a backup. Now, when the power goes out, only a couple of cups of water drain into my tank while the rest of the sump remains full of 8” of water. No massive drainage overflow into tank can happen plus my biological media remains intact. I’m hoping to provide lots of denitrification w 15+ pounds of Matrix, DeNitrate, and Biohome media. I will, of course, change/clean the mech filtration often as the media will do best w water free of debris.

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This pic is a smaller sized sump doing the same as above, but w only one algae scrubber and a bit less of anaerobic bacterial media for my 60g tank. The chambers work the same way w a shallow last area for the above reason.

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My third tank has a homemade sump which does a good job, but is not quite as fantastic as the two by Glasscages. I have to say that this company is awesome and their prices are in the same ballpark as places like FishTanksdirect, but.....and this is important.....Glasscages builds what you want to your exact specs and they do a very professional job. I needed mine to fit a specific shelf above my tanks and they fit like a glove.

I will admit that these sumps, along w my two AC110 HOBs for each tank filters the heck out of the water.....abt 1400 gph w the 75g tank and 1100 gph w the 60g tank. Btw....to keep the tank water from being too turbulent, I use a piece of foam at the AC 110 discharges and a prefilter sponge at where the sump drains into the tank.
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My discharge hoses from the sump are that sump pump hosing that is grooved perpendicular to the flow. When the water comes down, it gets nicely oxygenated.
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My pathos roots now are in the tank water w the plants growing off to the side of the tank since I wanted the recessed lids on the sumps to keep moisture inside and evaporation minimal.
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Lastly, the inlet side of the 48” unit. Much of the media came from my horse trough sump of the past. I added some Stability to jump start the new Matrix and additional Biohome. Now I’ll have wait.......although my nitrates rarely exceed 10, I’m hoping to do even better. And...yes, I’m still doing my 60-70% WCs every ten or so days. I’m just hoping to keep the water as good as possible between WCs. My tanks have a few artificial plants w the pathos and algae scrubbers doing the actual plant work....just outside the tank and in the sumps.
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Nice Bill ! I like the idea of top sumps ..
The algae scrubbers will help out also I am sure .
Keep us posted on how this set up works ..

Tom, I am trying something similar and my goal is to maintain Nitrates below 15 and hopefully below 10. Hoping that my design of Matrix and Denitrate alone works but also have room for algae scrubber +/- pothos if my current design is insufficient. Just curious, given that Nitrates will no longer be a good correlate to determine frequency and volume of water changes, is your current practice of ~70% q 10 days based on experience or are you using a different proxy such as ORP or TDS/EC to guide that decision?

I’ve based most of the WC cycles on experience in that the water chemistry is good and fish health is good. I do check TDS levels periodically, but they remain fairly constant. If my nitrates were constantly going above 20, I’d surely do more WCs short of it becoming a chore....unless I had to. Being adult fish helps as well. All I know is that this all is working for me.....there are those out there who would not agree with my approach. Honestly.....I would both never keep fish if I were not keeping them healthy, nor would I spend top bucks for super quality adult Discus only to have them perish or suffer in any way. Back a ways....I used to do 30-40% WCs every two weeks, but that was not good enough fish healthwise. Btw.....every month or two, I do a 90% WC as well.