"Tony K" wrote in message
...

"Jon C" wrote in message
...
So I have a new 55 gallon freshwater planted tank and was thinking of
setting up a very simple sump sytem.

My goals are to:

Simplify water changes or water addition
Simplify dosing of chemicals or medications
Move unsightly heaters and air bubbles from main tank
Increase oxygenation by heavily aerating sump
Keep CO2 generation out of main tank


I drew a diagram for the idea I have - http://jonnythan.com/sump.gif

I was planning on drilling a small hole at the top of the tank and
running
a
tube down into the sump (10 gallon?) tank. Use my Eheim Ecco filter as
a
pump to remove water from the sump and pump it into the main tank.

I was also planning on putting a Fluval internal filter into the main
tank
for some additional mechanical filtration and to have something that's
still
running during filter maintenance.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions on this setup? Thanks.

Jon

My first thoughts:

Would the Eheim have enough lift to pump back into the tank? I was under
the
impression canister filters relied more on syphonng power than pump power.
i.e. will only pump back to the highest level of the inlet hose of the
filter. Not up to another level as you seem to want to do. (Correct me if
I'm wrong)
If your design does work I would be happy as i had thought of doing
something similar but was put off by the need for an extra pump to return
water to the tank.

Regards,
Tony

I didn't realize that. This makes things more complicated, doesn't it

How about this change: http://jonnythan.com/sump2.gif

Get rid of the canister filter. Buy some 4" PVC pipe and a pair of pipe
caps. Drill a lot of small holes in the bottom one and one big hole in the
top one. Attach a tee barb to the big top hole, and run a hose from that
hole to the pump. Fill up the pipe with bio media and filter pads. This
way I can just use a water pump designed for high head (like
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=20 758)
to pump the water through the pipe filter back up into the tank.

This sound like a good idea?