Setting up Sump, Help!

martianarts

martianarts

Member
I've recently talked my parents into furnishing their living room with a big ol' fish tank. It's a quarter cylinder, 54 gallon tank.
I've only ever delt with regular filter and protein skimmers, so this is a new thing for me.
What size should the sump tank be, and what do I need for a basic sump setup? What are some optional pieces of equipment that would make the sump even better?
Also, the tank is going to be fish only.
 
stumpdog

stumpdog

Member
You want the sump to be as big as possible. The bigger your sump, the more water you have overall, this is good. For a sump you don't need much. An overflow to get the water from the tank to the sump, a return pump to return water to the display, and something to hold all the water. I have a 55 gallon tank and a 90 qt tub by Rubbermade for my sump. It only has about 15 gallons of water in it. I have a Lifereef overflow and a Mag9 return pump. Those are the basics. Let me know if you need any help. I asked about a dozen questions getting mine together.
HTH
Jeremy
 
hattrick58

hattrick58

Member
I just got my sump going. I have an 80 g tank and a 15 g rubbermaid sump. The sump houses 1 filter, 1 skimmer, 2 heaters and the Mag 9.5 return pump. The pump uses 1/2" vinyl tubing to some pvc as the "in" line to the tank. I have a Lifereef slimline as the overflow and use 1" vinyl tubing to the sump. I have installed ball valves on both lines. It took some playing around with to get the flow right (by adjusting the overflow and the valve from the return pump), but seems to be working okay now. HTH.
 
martianarts

martianarts

Member
Thank you guys for the help, it was very useful and the search on sumps did provide an amazing amount of other info.
 
nacl-man

nacl-man

Member
Make sure to drill the saftey hole below the waterline on the return line... otherwise if you loose power you will have a rather large mess on your hands.
Something that a lot of people forget or don't think about in the first place. Having your tank drain is not a fun experience I would not think.
HTH
 
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