Need Help with Sump Design

TitansFan

TitansFan

Active member
I am still trying to figure out my sump for the 150 gallon I am piecing together right now. I will be using an external skimmer and external return pump. I was considering buying an acrylic 45 gallon long from glasscages. This tank would be 4 feet long. Since no real equipment would be in the sump I had thought to divide the sump into 2 sections. One would be 3 feet long for the fuge and the other 1 foot long for the return section. Is there another design that would work better?

On another note if I bought acrylic sheets to glue in myself what weldon product should I use and where can I get it?

Thanks
 
I am about to order weldon and build a sump. Glasscages wont make the one i want. You are welcome to come use my stuff. Also glass cages only cuts the acylic to appoximate sizes so some cutting is required
 
I'd make it with at least 3 sections. One for the drain, a middle section, and then a return section with bubble trap in between. The reason is it will be more versatile if you ever need the middle section. Say you want to do a fuge at some point, etc. Even without a fuge, having the drain from the skimmer/tank go into its own section will help to dissipate any bubbles before the water blows back up to the display.

It really isn't that much work to get it built from the start like that but breaking down and adding a baffle or two is a pain.
 
I want to build my own sump/fuge. There are tons of designs, but there do seem to be a few consistent parts to every design. I also have a few questions:
Is the wet-dry style Sump out-dated or just not popular because of maintenance?
Does a deep sand bed refugium replace the need for a plenum in my tank?
 
Jack re-read my first post about the fuge. ;) What would I need with 3 sections though? If my skimmer and return pump are external.. would it be needed? I would hope 3 feet of fuge with baffles would help stop bubbles. For reference my skimmer is a deltec ap701 and the return will be a reeflo snapper. The snapper will be doing multi jobs of feeding the skimmer, feeding 2 phosban/carbon filters, and return duty.

CK maybe we can work on them together if you have better tools than I.

DawgDiggity: I don't think wet-dry sumps are out of date.. I just don't think a reef tank is the proper setting for them. If you are doing a fish only with very little live rock than a wet-dry would be great.
 
you need to seperate the fuge from the intake and return sections in order to keep your sandbed as tall as possible. The intake is going to be pretty turbulent, so you don't want to dump it straight into the refuge.

The return, even if the pump is external will need a seperate chamber to keep the bubbles down, and keep sand out (which it looks like you already have in mind).
 
The "drain" section doesn't have to be large so you could still use most of the 3'. The advantage is what if you decide you want a sand bed and mangroves, or a deep sandbed, or want a high-flow area to add alk supplements that won't spike the pH too high for the algae in the fuge for example. If you have a first section that takes all the input flow, then you can isolate that to keep the flow from blowing sand everywhere, or allow the supplement to dissipate some before it hits the rest of the sump.

Having 3 sections just makes it more versatile if you change your mind about things in the future.
 
One piece of advise I have is to make the return area as large as you can if you dont do auto top off. if you ahve it small like GC builds em, you will have to top off alot more often to keep the pump submerged.
 
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