sumps

[countryboy]

Hello folks, would anyone like to share some pics of thier sumps or any suggestions.I'm going to start building mine this weekend out of a thirty long

[smallreef]

Im assuming your talking about baffeling it?

 

I prefer 3 chambers... 1st for the overflow from the tank... second for the skimmer.. and final for the return pump

 

I always set the 1st baffle between chambers 1 and 2 on the base and have it come up to about 4 inches below the top... that will be my sumps highest point...

then between the 2nd and 3rd chamber I put in a set of 2 baffles.. one about 2 inches off of the bottom... enough to put a course sponge across and about an inch or inch and a half from the other baffle that touches the bottom but is not as tall as the baffle from chamber 1...

[Coral Hind]

Everyone is different, I prefer no chambers in my sump. I also use rubbermaid tubs.

 

[smallreef]

OH THE HORRORS!!!! I have this thing about micro bubbles, lol and the possibilites drive me CRAZY!, lol

I have done the "tote" sump before...

[Origami]

Here are pictures of my first sump, a long time ago. It was built in a 20H. Baffles and such were acrylic, and were "bonded" to the glass using lines of clear, aquarium-safe silicone "drawn" on either side of the aquarium wall where the baffle was to be attached. (I drew guide lines where I wanted the baffles to go using a white board marker.)I would draw a line on the the two opposing glass panes, press in the acrylic baffle, and then run another bead of silicone on to trap the baffle between the two beads.

 

Anyway, it's hard to see in this picture, but the back left is where the water entered the sump. The flow through the sump was as follows: Filter-sock chamber =>> Skimmer chamber =>> baffles =>> mini refugium/macroalgae chamber =>> return pump chamber. The baffling was set up to go over-under-over into the refugium. You can see this better in teh second picture. I used a piece of egg crate between the refugium and return pump chamber to prevent macroalgae from going over the top and into the return pump chamber. The plumbing out of the return pump had a feedback loop back to the first chamber. For the most part, I never fed any water back that way. Back in those days, I used a hang-on-back (HOB) skimmer. This picture shows my first skimmer: A CPR BakPak. It was quickly replaced with a HOB TurboFlotr.

 

Today, my sump is a 100-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. No baffling - just a single big container large enough to set things in.

 

[countryboy]

Wow! So many differant ways. What ever happened to the ones that used bio balls. Does the live rock perform better in the sump? Where do you get the micro algea? Too many options to choose. Is one better than the other or do they all end with the same result?

[flooddc]

Forget the bio-ball unless you planned to clean it regularly. Go with LR/rubble.

Here is my 70G sump-refugium I built 3 months ago. (ALL GLASS)

It 's 4 chambers from left to right. 1) overflow+in-sump protein skimmer. 2) Flow over and under into 2nd chamber (refugium w/ 5-6 inches of sand) (I called it sand filter/refugium stage). 3) flow over to front chamber filled with live rocks topped with drip tray. 4) water flow under from 3rd chamber to 4th chamber (return pump, I also through in some bagged activate carbon in this chamber)

 

I measured my overflow and left out the same amount in the sump (mine is about 20-25 Gallons) in case of pump failure or power failure so to prevent flooding.

 

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Edited June 2, 2012 by flooddc

[Coral Hind]

Bio-balls are not used much in reef tanks but they still work great for fish only system. I currently use them in my QT system.

[countryboy]

Forget the bio-ball unless you planned to clean it regularly. Go with LR/rubble.

Here is my 70G sump-refugium I built 3 months ago. (ALL GLASS)

It 's 4 chambers from left to right. 1) overflow+in-sump protein skimmer. 2) Flow over and under into 2nd chamber (refugium w/ 5-6 inches of sand) (I called it sand filter/refugium stage). 3) flow over to front chamber filled with live rocks topped with drip tray. 4) water flow under from 3rd chamber to 4th chamber (return pump, I also through in some bagged activate carbon in this chamber)

 

I measured my overflow and left out the same amount in the sump (mine is about 20-25 Gallons) in case of pump failure or power failure so to prevent flooding.

 

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

 

Thanks for the pics and the info