Custom sump for 37 gall?

[fishymann]

I want to create a sump for my soon to be 37 gallon sea horse tank. First, would a 10 gallon tank be big enough or no? Below is an idea of how i would setup the walls in side the 10 gallon. Also suggestions on pumps\powerheads would be nice.

Arrows show direction of water flow. thank you guys very much for all and any help.

 

[fishymann]

no one has any input?

 

[kelley_mc]

Is this a 37 gal All-Glass? If it is, then a 10 gal tank won't fit under the store bought stand, you will need to make a custom stand.

With regard to your pic, I am not sure what you are looking for. I think....

The first baffles where the water enters the sump should be closer together. Spacing like that is just wasting too much space in my opinion. Put them about an inch apart. Also, the last bubble trap is not necessary in my opinion either. The first set of bubble traps should eliminate all the microbubbles.

It would help to know what you plan on putting where in the sump. Where will the skimmer go? How about the heater? Are you also going to have a refugium in there? This added info will help.

I am currently doing a build on a 37 gal All-Glass. I have a sump design in my thread that I am happy with.

The first design, was similiar to yours, I wasn't overly happy with. But again, it all depends on the goals of your sump. I wanted my skimmer and heater down there, along with my skimmer. The sump flows left to right like this:
Drain(Skimmer) -->Refugium--> Return

I used a 20 gal tall and did a lot of testing before I came up with a design that I liked. This image flows right to left like this:
Drain(Skimmer)-->Refugium-->Return.

The pump will be behind the eggcrate which will keep the macro algae out of the pump. This design gave me more refugium room and a greater amount of water volume for evaporation before topoffs would be necessary. My original design had such a small return area that I would have been topping off twice a day and the location of the tank does not allow for an auto-topoff.

Here is a link to my build if you are interested.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=962156&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[fishymann]

thanks, no skimmer (as of now). the 10gallon will fit in the stand i checked last night. i'm new to this type of filtration that is why i gave little information. I'm assuming to put the heater right by the return back to the tank that way the warmest water is put right into the tank.
heres my revised plan after looking at your sump lay out. What pump did you use?

 

[kelley_mc]

I have a Quiet One 4000 I believe. I will have to dial it back because I believe I will have too much flow. You only want about 10 times, or in your case 370 gph. Use the Reef Cental calculator to determine your needs.

The heater can go anywhere, I just wanted to know if you thought about a location for it. You may have some micro bubble problems without any bubble traps to catch them. Also, bioballs are usually not used because they store nitrates. Melev has a great site with regard to sumps. I will get you the link.

 

[fishymann]

alright thank you so much kelley, i am a total noob at this stuff and am just trying to get some idea. Do you think though that a 10 gallon will be sufficient enough?

 

[kelley_mc]

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

You will find a LOT of information about sumps here.

 

[fishymann]

Thank you VERY much kelley

 

[kelley_mc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9115377#post9115377 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishymann
Do you think though that a 10 gallon will be sufficient enough?

It should be fine. Anything is better than nothing, but more is always better.

Basically, all you need is a refugium. This may be a pretty good design for you.

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/a/sump_model_a.html

 

[kelley_mc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9115495#post9115495 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishymann
Thank you VERY much kelley

No problem. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[fishymann]

so basically, water comes in refugium where sand, macro algae and some rock is, then over flows into last chamber where the pump pushes hte water back up to the tank.

 

[kelley_mc]

Yup, that's basically it. The up and down pieces of acrylic are the bubble traps.

 

[fishymann]

it looks like i'm going to have to go with the rainbow quiet one aquarium pump 3000 cuz i need a head of about 4 feet, does anyone have any suggestions of a pump that will do a 4 feet head at about 300gph? Also, do i just use gravity to feed the water into the sump?

 

[rustybucket145]

I would suggest a mag 3 or 5 you will needto check out the head ratings. I think they have them listed at marinedepot.com (under powerheads)

Here's a diagram that I've made a few sumps from. You will need to locate the return pump inside the tank b/c the glass on a 10 wont hold bulkheads worth jack.

 

[rustybucket145]

Be sure to pay attention to the location of the valves and unions in relation to the pipes.

 

[fishymann]

on yours you show the skimmer pump pulling in the water, at least for now i am not planning on a skimmer so do i still need a pump to pull the water in?

 

[fishymann]

man a lot of people post a lot of DIY stuff, another thing i just realized, i was told not to add macro algae to my tank until the ammonia and nitrate has raised an dropped, so when is it safe to add to the refugium

 

[fishymann]

Alright, i worked a little on the plumbing layout, the program i used though i really had no way of putting in "bends" so anywhere there is a hard meet of pipes would be a bend, and the valves will most likely be placed half way up the display tank for easy access. Green is return red is waste into sump

 

[kelley_mc]

You can probably see in my thread that I was also planning on using the manifold design around the rim for my return. However, since putting it through a wet test, I dedided not too, mostly because there isn't enough flow coming from the sump to have 4 outlets that have any real pressure at all.

I was hoping that I would be able to elimated powerheads by using the flow from my sump, but I really couldn't. I only want about 10x turnover in the sump and 30 times in the display. I decided to go with 2 outlets along the back of the tank and that's all.

 

[fishymann]

Hmm, now im stuck. Since i'm doing seahorses i dont need a lot of movement, so would the manifold give me enough or would it just create to many dead zones. I was going to go with the rainbow quiet 3000 series but it seems like the mag 5 are really the most favored so i have no problem spending an extra 13$ for it.