Sump Design

[rwiesner20]

I have never done a sump but I am extremely handy and this is the design I have in mind, please tell me if something could be changed for a better sump setup, Sorry for image quality had to take picture on my phone since I couldn't get picture on forum

 

[al&burke]

Can you post some dimensions of your sump L x W X H - I think there can be some improvements on you design. I would be happy to put something together for you in terms of a drawing - here is a picture of my sump, just keep in mind that my fuge is separate from this it feeds into the return section from the right.

 

[2quills]

Hi, welcome to the site. Al is really good with sump designs and he can offer you some good advice. At first glance a couple things that I notice are that the way you have your baffles layed out in the drawing tell me that it won't work that way. Specifically how you are showing the water level in the skimmer area, It goes against the laws of physics for water to flow down and then back up against gravity on it's own. So essentially the skimmer area would flood and the water level would be the same height as the two chambers on either side of it. One other thing that I see is that having all of that media before the skimmer is going to render the skimmer less effective and clog up all that media with organics and debri. I would put the media after the skimmer.

 

[rwiesner20]

I haven't measured everything yet because I am not sure if my design was good or made any sense or if the skimmer needed to go after the fuge, trying to get all my facts straight before I buy and build one because I have a 55 gallon right now will post the inner dimesions in a little when I find a tape measure

 

[rwiesner20]

Thanks for the advice, like I said I have never built one but my local fish shop has there's set up this way except the skimmer and fuge are reversed, so the skimmer then the media and then do the fuge after that should be my power head area???? By the way this is the dimensions I have to work with W 10 1/2 x L 34 1/2 x H 16. The length and height are negotiable, the length can't go any longer then that though, the height I will have about 10 inch's to play with so that way I can do work inside the sump and remove anything I need I also know i have to hook up a light for my fuge

 

[al&burke]

Thanks 2Quils, learned everything from you guys here. Another thing we need to know is what type of skimmer are you going with. 2Quils is really good for recommending equipment, I just installed a SWC 160 cone skimmer, really like it - it is taking oil colored crud out of the water. Also with the type of skimmer will tell us what height to make the baffles. Do you want to make this sump/fuge in a tank or are you going to fab out of acrylic?

 

[rwiesner20]

I have no idea on the skimmer yet but I planned to find fab it out since the only tank I could use would be a 20 long and that might be a tight fit

 

[al&burke]

I forgot to ask you what size is the display tank?

 

[rwiesner20]

55 gallon

 

[al&burke]

Any updates on type of skimmer you are planning

 

[rwiesner20]

really don't know what a good one is for a decent price any suggestions would be helpful

 

[al&burke]

Check out the SWC cones

 

[rwiesner20]

I have been looking at a reef octopus nwb 110 4" internal pr it is rated for 100 gal. So I figured that's close enough to being doubled since I got a 55gal. Tank

 

[xcali1985]

ASM Mini-G is an excellent skimmer for your size tank and has a small footprint as the pump is actually under the skimmer itself.

 

[saxman]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xcali1985 http:///forum/thread/385462/sump-design#post_3381838
ASM Mini-G is an excellent skimmer for your size tank and has a small footprint as the pump is actually under the skimmer itself.
Personally, I was pretty displeased with this skimmer. It was super picky about water level, was a PITA to dial in, and pretty much fell apart after awhile. It's now skimming the landfill.
I've used and own quite a few skimmers, but this is one I don't recommend.