Sump??

a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
I asked this question before but really didnt get the answer. What is a sump, i know you can store your filter, skimmer ect in it. But other than that what does it do???? What else do you put in it???????
Thanks
 
demosthenes

demosthenes

Active Member
I will briefly describe a sump. 1. An overflow collects the water which flows downwards into a 2. tower of some sort, mine is filled with a prefilter, phosphate pads, a mesh bio-roll, and 1 gallon of bio-balls, or 74 balls. From there my water is sucked into a 3. Skimmer, and after it leaves the skimmer it is forced through 4. heavy-duty phosphate pads, and then is 5. pumped back up by a 750 gph Mag Drive pump. There are variations of sumps, but this is my personal one. I also have a canister filter, a Magnum 350 Pro, that runs 2 bio-wheels, and is filled with a little bit of activated carbon and about 15 oz of Nitrate Reductor by Kent Marine. I don't expect the canister to do any filtering, it's job is to reduce nitrates, which it does, as I've never detected any Nitrate in the length my tank's been set up. Back to the sump though. I soon plan on adding a refugium to my sump to increase my pod population, and as another check-valve on nitrates. If you have any more questions regarding a sump, or a refugium, feel free to ask questions, these forums are here to help. HTH
 
heavenly damsel

heavenly damsel

Member
We have sumps on two of our aquariums. One with the tank pre-drilled and one with an overflow box. The reason we went with the sump is to get all of the equipment out of the tank and to increase the amount of water "in" the tank. The only equipment in the display tanks are the powerheads for circulation. I have a refugium on my tank to increase pod population and grow caulerpa for the tangs. I have pictures of the set up on my web page in the middle album if you would like to see it.
In the sump water falls into a bio bag for mechanical filtration. We have a heater there, our protien skimmer and a RIO 2500 to return the water to the tank. Sump is 10 gallon and my refugium is another 10 gallons. HTH
 
cara

cara

New Member
I'm a little confused as well about the sump. Is a trickle filter a type of sump? I picked up a catalogue from our fish store and there's nothing that says "sump". The only thing that sounds like your descriptions is the trickle filter.
What is LFS by the way?
Thanks! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />
 
a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
So when i see a wet/dry filter that looks like a square box with dividers and alot of room- that is a sump (the part that does not contain the BioBalls??)
Cant i just make one ?????????
if so anyone have any directions for this????
 
salvatore

salvatore

Member
This is a wet/dry trickle filter with a built-in sump:

The sump is on the right and is the last portion of the filter before going out to the pump (unless you alter its flow-design).
 
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