Building the sump nextdoor

[Cousin Joe]

I recently set up my first successful(so far) FOWLR tank and I love it, so
much that i'm running some thoughts through my head about building a much
larger(150+) tank out of wood and latex. My question starts here, since I'm
building the thing anyway why couldn't I attach a sump area to the back of
the tank?

[Joe Varghese]

"Cousin Joe" > wrote in message >...
> I recently set up my first successful(so far) FOWLR tank and I love it, so
> much that i'm running some thoughts through my head about building a much
> larger(150+) tank out of wood and latex. My question starts here, since I'm
> building the thing anyway why couldn't I attach a sump area to the back of
> the tank?

Most intakes into a sump are gravity driven i.e., water overflows into
a collection basin, and then this falls down to the sump. I'd guess
you'd have to use a pump to do this (since the water levels between
the tank and the sump would not be significantly different), and then
have another pump to push it back from the sump to the tank ...

But, theoretically it's possible. More complicated plumbing and
coordination, not to mention space considerations and accessibiltiy.
There's also an argument that says it increases the risk of potential
water spills and pumps burning out.

Good luck!

[Eric]

I think there is a way to do it that gives one a real refugium (no pump
chewing up critters returning to the main tank from the refugium) and
without the water in the main tank fluctuating too much. In fact, it
seems to me this could work much better than the usual sump arrangement.

Build the tank/sump so that they both hold water at the same height.
Connect the two directly using a largish hole near the top. Connect a
pump and strainer to this hole (the pump would live in the sump/refugium
with pipe or tubing attaching the pump's intake to the bulkhead
fitting). This would supply the sump with water. For the return drill
a series of small holes (1/4 or 1/2 inch) down near the bottom. The
water would be forced back through these holes by gravity, and the holes
should be small enough for critters from the main tank that you don't
want in the sump/refugium to enter.

The only real problem with this that I see is that your sump would be
deep which means your skimmer would have to be propped up or somesuch...

Eric

nanoreef wrote:
> Joe Varghese may have written:
>
>>I'd guess
>>you'd have to use a pump to do this (since the water levels between
>>the tank and the sump would not be significantly different), and then
>>have another pump to push it back from the sump to the tank ...
>
>
> Never use two pumps to move water like this. One pump will always move
> more water then the other. The result is that the sump or the main
> tank will overflow.
>
> You only need 1mm difference in height to get water to flow from the
> tank to the sump. In practice the height difference will depend on
> size of the gravity return area and the flow rate. If you think of the
> sump and main tank as really being a bigger tank with a divider down
> the middle then it is easy to see that the height difference is very
> close to zero.
>
> If your sump is next to the tank or obove the tank there are benefits
> to pumping the water to the sump and useing gravity for the
> return. You could run a real refugium and not worry about the critters
> being chewed up in the return pump. The only down side I see is that
> the water level in the main tank will fluctuate, but that is a purely
> cosmetic issue.
>
> Personnally if you have the space to make the sump at the same level
> as the tank, I would just make the tank larger :-)

[Cousin Joe]

I think I like the idea of having it above the main tank, with a good size
pump it would give almost a HOT filter effect. My thought on the whole thing
was to keep the neccesary hardware and filtering behind the tank itself if
almost an unseperable part of each other.