Large tanks with unconventional sumps?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm designing a 250g (DT) system and trying to keep the whole thing as efficient and low-impact as possible. Started a thread in the advanced forum:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1734235

but I'm wondering if people in here can fill in some of the gaps. To keep this from looking like a shameless crosspost, there's one thing in particular I'm looking for.

Has anyone in here built or seen a large tank with a non-conventional sump? My first thought was a basement sump, but I'm not really sure I *need* that much room, and the pumping losses are going to be big.

Second thought - sump under the tank. But at that point, why not just a false wall? I've got the room and design flexibility, and don't need a ton of space. Has anyone done this on a large tank?

 

[sfsuphysics]

What would you consider "unconventional"? Basement doesn't really fit the bill IMO...

I think if you could design it such that your sump is really minimized to be as small as possible that'd be something that leans towards unconventional. Literally about as big as it takes to hold your skimmer and all equipment. Need to make sure a power loss won't cause a flood or anything, and definitely would need some ATO system due to the percentage of water loss to evaporation but I don't see why it couldn't be done.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Sorry, I should have been more clear - by "unconventional" I mean things like a false wall in the back of the tank instead of a sump, or no sump at all, or a 'fuge/surge above the tank instead of a sump, etc.

False-wall tanks are common on nanos, where space is precious, and there are lots of really inventive things happening in that segment of the hobby. I'm wondering if people have applied some of those ideas to really big tanks.

 

[justinm0424]

I setup a basement sump at my previous home. The head loss isn't too bad if you use a pressure rated pump. I used one large pump to feed the tank, skimmer, fuge and frag tank it worked great. I loved having a lot of room and we had floor drains and a sink in the basement which made everything work great. Also it was easy to tee the RO into my fridge for water and ice then have the DI to the tank. Basement's are cooler and noise of everything isn't a problem since i'm the only one ever down there.

 

[justinm0424]

False wall would be awesome. I've never heard of anyone doing that in a large system though. I'm assuming the costs of a larger tank are more than a tank and a large sump with equal volume.

 

[malawiman]

our unconventional system is a 135g display in the main floor of our house plumbed to the basement. our basement tanks are 2X 150g rubermaid stock tanks and 1 100g rm stock tank. i use a iwaki 70 high head prx used for presurized containers, im guessing for agrocultural use. i also use a gen x 40 i belive and a mag 7 as return/ circulation pumps. so basicly my "sump" is much larger than my display.

 

[porterdog]

I don't have a huge tank, but I do have a gravity sump. I pump water UP to the sump and then it drains via two herbie style drains down back in to the tank. I can find pics if interested. I like it a lot as it makes the sump at head level and is way easier on my back to work on it. I mostly did this cause I did not want to drill my tank which is about 15 years old and allready set up. I use a canister filter with nothing in it to pump the water up. Works well enough I'm seriously consider it my next large tank. The only thing I don't like is the evaporation occurs in the tank versus the return section of the sump.

 

[mm949]

on this tank i didnt have enough room to get everything under the stand and a basement was not an option....i did however have just enough room to double stack (2) 125gl allglass tanks on the side of the tank

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made some access on both sides to hide everything

 

[mm949]

on this tank i didnt have enough room to get everything under the stand and a basement was not an option....i did however have just enough room to double stack (2) 125gl allglass tanks on the side of the tank

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made some access on both sides to hide everything

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[dmorel]

I actually built a false floor to hide all the plumbing and electric that runs to my garage which serves as the sump room. I also designed the "sump" as a completely separate system which is then plumbed into the display tank. I have a fuge, frag tank, traditional sump, and an "isolatable water changed enabled tank" as well as another tank above the isolatable one that is plumbed in to allow for water changes by the turning of three valves.

Here's a pic of the false floor when we first put it in.. the plumbing and electrical go through a hole in the wall below the level of the false floor but above the actual floor.

and a shot of the sumps:

The flow in the sumps is the display drains to the bottom tank on the rack with three tanks, is pumped up to the fuge on the top of that rack. Fuge drains to the frag tank (which actually has frags in it now!)... that drains to the isolatable water vessel the bottom tank on the left hand shelf, which in turn drains back to the sump. There is a valve that will switch the flow of water between the frag tank and the isolatable tank so that the frag tank just drains back to the main sump. Once that is engaged, I can turn another valve which is not in the picture but drains that entire isloated tank to a sink to the left of it. Close that valve, open the valve between the top tank - which can be filled with rodi water from a 55 gallon storage container with the flip of a DJ switch and has a circulation pump and heater on another DJ switch to mix fresh saltwater - and now I have a 40 gallon water change done in a few minutes with not a single siphon

hope that's helpful, and failing that, at least interesting...