Originally Posted by CAM78
WOW, you know what your doing. Maybe I should just buy the premade ones. That is pretty intense. I appreciate the pictures though, I noticed you have a rather large skimmer. I would be using the Red Sea prism deluxe. Can I use that in the refuge? What my concern is really, how do know what to seperate and how far apart do those dividers go and all that stuff. Should I build one out of a 10 or 15 gallon? I am thinking of getting the CPR overflow.
Thanks, but about 2 months ago, I knew nothing about sumps. Got my info from here. Once you break things down into steps, it's pretty easy.
You can use a HOB skimmer in the sump. Just make sure the inlet to the pump is low enough to be submerged. The baffles will be a lot lower than the top of the tank. I had to add tubing to mine to get it under water. By the way, surface skimmed water makes a skimmer a lot more efficient.
The distance between the sections depends on if you want to put a skimmer in the sump or HOB. That would be the first section. Then the 3 baffles, 1 down, 1 up 2", 1 down. Spaced about 1" apart.
You can make a sump if I can. It took about a week of research and two days to make it including drying time. The overflow installation and the return plumbing took two more days. I saved about $100.00 and it cost me about 150.00 for a 50 gallon glass sump including the baffles and glue.
Another thing about doing it yourself is you can pick the right size for your area to fit. The largest size possible is recommended because a big part of the sump is increased water volume which makes variations in water parameters slower. I think the best part is the refugium that grows bugs and uses nutrients (caulerpa harvesting). Anyway, see if I'm explaining this well enough. I know it in my head, kinda hard to put in down on paper:
1.overflow is set where you want your tank's water level to stay. Adjustment screws on top and bottom
2. Gravity sends the water down through a tube to the first section in the sump.
3. The water fills the first section, goes through the three baffles (whatever height you want) and fills up the middle section. Make this section big enough for your in-sump skimmer or smaller if you're using a HOB.
4.The next section is the refugium and will fill up to the height of the next set of baffles and fills up the last section. Make this section as big as you can without sacrificing the return section.
5.This section is the return and this is where your return pump is located. The pump sends the water up to tank where it raises the water enough to send up and over the overflow. Make this section large enough so you don't have to keep filling because of evaporation.
If you look at the pictures, it'll make sense.
Floods happen when:
1.The electricity shuts off and the pump stops pushing water up. The water drains the display tank back into the sump and will continue until the water level reaches the return tube height. To fix this, you drill a hole in the return tube(s) just below the running water line so the siphon will break early.
2. You lose siphon on the overflow and the return pump keeps going and drains the last (return) section of the sump. If your running water level in your display tank is too high, it can flood over the sides of the display tank. 3 things to do to fix this.
First, calculate how many gallons per inch your display tank holds and calculate how much water your return section holds. Adjust the overflow so your running water level is low enough to accomodate the return section's full water volume.
The second thing you can do is keep a dosing pump ($11.00) attached to the siphon tube on your overflow to suck out any air. This will keep the siphon going. A must on the cpr units.
Third, buy an electric float valve that will turn the return pump off if the level gets too low in the return section.
If you made a 20 gallon glass sump, I bet it would cost you under $60.00 easy. $30.00 for the tank and $20.00 for the acrylic baffles or better yet, glass baffles and about $11.00 for the silicone.
Hope this helps and my wife says I'm long winded,
Tom
