sump?

jessica47421

jessica47421

Active Member
my nitrates are up and they told me at the lfs to get a sump? do these help with this? also how much does it cost to build a sump? including pump and light and everything? i was wanting to get a ball part guess on this before i asked my husband about it. also are these needed?
 
nicetry

nicetry

Active Member
Adding a sump is not going to necessarily help with your nitrate problems. Sumps give you more water volume and afford a place to keep your skimmer, heater, filter media, but they are not a "necessity" in maintaining a tank. Your cost will vary depending on how big you go. A 15-20 gallon glass tank, couple piecs of glass for baffles, a return pump and some tubing. Obviously your tank is not drilled so you also have to factor in a hang on overflow, or have the tank drilled (which means emptying it). THe only reason to incorporate lighting would be if you were having a refugium.
 
trigger11

trigger11

Member
Going with the refugium would be my vote actually. Keep some macro algae plants in there like chaeto and they will eat the nitrates right up. Which also reduces the nitrates other algae needs to grow. Keep a few pieces of LR in there and you can also have a nice place for copepods to grow where the other fishy's cant eat them.
 
C

cmaxwell39

Guest
As said already, the only way a sump will help with your nitrate problem is to incorporate a refugium. That being said, there are other advantages to a sump. A sump adds water volume to the system helping to make everything more stable. It is also a place to hide a lot of the equipment and reduce clutter in the tank. You can put your heater, skimmer, etc down there and not have to have all those things hanging off the back of the tank. In the diy forum there are many designs for sumps, sump/fuges so that you don't have to try and design one yourself.
 
dmjordan

dmjordan

Active Member
tank $30 - $40 or however much your lfs sells them for
glass baffles (4 cut by glass shop/hardware store) - $20
aquarium 100% silicone - $8
bag of ls - $30
clip on light fixture and spiral flourescent bulb - $30
pvc - $4
spa tubing - $12
return pump - $90
overflowbox - $100
these are just estimates...prices depend on size and brand of pumps and overflow box, and the prices things cost in your local hardware store
 
dmjordan

dmjordan

Active Member
if you are doing a sump only and no refugium the omit the live sand, light and bulb and 1 baffle.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by jessica47421
my nitrates are up and they told me at the lfs to get a sump? do these help with this? .....
Yet another pet store to avoid...
A refugium will help (but you still need to find the cause of Nitrates. Tank overstocked? Overfeeding? infrequent water changes? Detritus building up?) if you incorporate a deep sand bed, lots of very porous live rock, or a macro algae.
If the store said "add a sump" without explaining to you what that meant you need to quit using them.
 
greenwolf52

greenwolf52

Member

Originally Posted by jessica47421
do you know of any where i can look to find the exact directions as to how to build one? and how to set it up ?
it's all on here. in the forums. just search for it...also i found this when i was setting up mine and this guy has it figured out.
********************* No links please.1Journeyman
 
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