Would something like this work?

[matt b]

I am setting up my 180 and have a question about sumps. I cant get anything larger then a 30 long under my stand cause of the suports. And the 180 has 2 overslows which each have a drain and a return. So would it work to have 2 sumps? Each working off one of the overflows. So one overflow would drain into one sump and the other overflow would drain into the other sump. And each sump would have a return. So it would look like this

 

[fishfreak1242]

Seems like it would work to me.

 

[wattsupdoc]

Yes, this is what I have on my 135. However you have to connect the 2 together in some fashion. Balancing two separate drains to two separate pumps can be impossible. Connecting them together allows minute amounts of water to move wherever it need to in order to stay balanced. It would be easiest to just drill each one and plumb them in together. Otherwise you could do a U tube (AKA syphon) between the two. But will need to keep it primed somehow. I am using the syphon method right now. Be sure you connect in the return pump compartments. Also, you can connect the two together and just use one return pump if you wanted to. Just be sure whichever way you go, the pipe connecting them will accommodate all the flow that can possibly be ran through it should a pump fail.

 

[fattony]

I agree you need to connect them together. I would drill them and use a 2" bulkhead to tie them togther with a short run of pipe.

 

[fishfreak1242]

Also, a smart idea would be to put a tee in the middle of the two sumps with a pipe running up just to the top of the tank and have that run to a nearby drain or something, so that if your return pump gets shut off, the water that would have overflowed, would go to the drain. Just my .02 cents.

 

[hurt]

You can use two sumps, but you must have both return pumps in the same chamber. You will not match flows with two return pumps in two different sumps. I would tie both tanks together with a simple drain to gravity feed water into the other where the return pumps are located. You won't have anything to worry about if you do this.