Need opinions..

[fogcutter]

So I have the luxury of time for planning my new/next tank. It'll be my first tank setup since I left the hobby / moved to VA 6 years ago.

 

I was going through the gear that I had left and testing to make sure everything still worked. I found out that the custom 20 gal acrylic sump I had in storage wasn't as ideal as I thought....I'll probably have to add some baffles and make some adjustments.....no biggie. The rockin' return pump still works great but it's a monster and it's an external/dry pump but I see no reason not to use it.

 

What'd like to know is: What do you think the best way to plumb my return pump with my sump? I don't have a problem drilling the sump but do I need to?

 

 

Any thoughts?

[Chad]

Having run a setup similar to what you show, I can say that I would rather have the sump drilled. I say this because that type of a setup is diffucult (more complicated) to make sure it is 'self priming'. The reason is that when you shut the pump off and water backflows through the pump back into the sump, the water will drain out of the line once the return is above the water line... Since the pumps dont 'suck' water well, the pump may end up running dry. Now you can install a setup to prime the pump (aqua lifter at high point with a valve on the outlet of the pump that is shut), but IME it is worth it to go ahead and drill the sump.

 

I would also make the return area as large as you can once your equipment is all in there, small returns are a nightmare for water top off... I made the mistake on one of my previous setups of having about a 5 gallon return area (not sump size there was no risk of overflow) on a ~200 gallon system... large variation day to day on the water level in that portion of the sump ATO will help, but larger return area is better.

 

Hope this helps!

[Charlie]

I'm gonna have to go with Chad on this. Drilling the sump would be better because you don't want to run the risk of running the pump while it's dry. While running it dry for very short periods of time won't hurt it (much), I don't see the risk outweighing the benefits. If your luck is anything like mine, you would have a problem just after you leave on a two week vacation and your tank sitter couldn't get ahold of you because you're on a plane. By drilling the tank, they could unplug the pump and break the siphon on the drain until you call back and starting the pump would be easy (and you wouldn't run the risk of flooding your house when the pump wasn't primed and your sitter started the drain back too soon).

[Origami]

Drill it.

[Integral9]

I'd drill it. External pumps overheat much faster than submersible pumps when running dry.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Integral9