show me your under tank sump et al.

[mccorry]

Just putting mine together....

The tank return and skimmer will be on the right.... an Argonite Sand bed refugium in the middle (with a power filter to start)..... and the heater and return pump on the left.

Installed in the base....

 

[boosted chemist]

looks nice. Any advise how to use media in the sump without adding a reactor? I was thinking of constructing a media rack that the DT water washed over.

 

[Gravesj1s]

~Boosted chemist, just thought this might be an idea.

When I was building my sump I had a similar idea in mind ,because I didnt want to buy a reactor.Knowing I'd have to add baffles for airbubbles.The idea was to get water to pass through the media,whitch I think it works pretty well.Theres four chambers that act as baffles,place for chemical media,mechanical and heater.So water is pushed through all the chambers width wise up & down ,then flows length wise through fuge to return pump.

<a href="http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/gravesj1s/?action=view&current=006.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/gravesj1s/006.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[boosted chemist]

Thats what im talking about. Cool, so the water enters chamber one, and goes up chamber 2? Do you have some kind of a removable media rack in there?

 

[Gravesj1s]

Thats what im talking about. Cool, so the water enters chamber one, and goes up chamber 2? Do you have some kind of a removable media rack in there?

Yeah,from tank directly into skimmer.So chamber 1 is skimmer output.Goes down then up into chamber 2 where the heater is , if I needed to bypass the skimmer thats what the other pipe is foryou see next to the heater,just tee'd from overflow.Then over the blue filterfloss,3.00 for a big sheet of it I cut it myself into squares. I put a meshbag of carbon inside chamber #3.My guess is its not as good as a reactor but better then passive.

Ive seen thick plastic screen that could be purchased from crafts stores locally,I think it could be constructed to hold chemical media placed in one of the chambers and might be a good way to go.Ive been toying with the idea lately and I think I can get it work close to that of a reactor.

 

[boosted chemist]

Do you happen to have any dimension of that constructed filter/trap area?

I think thats what i should do to my 15 gal sump.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Get back to you ,I left my tape at work.

 

[pascal32]

I find myself making more of a mess with the basement sump than i did when it was under the tank! A well designed under the tank can be just as easy. We are looking at a second tank since we have it sitting dry (old tank) which will be under the tank with a drain line and a remote switch for refilling water changes. There is the cost of the pump, but not the 24x7 of running it.

Recurring costs are the ones to keep low.

Taxes suck here - I looked at some houses a few states south - buying the same house there we could put an extra $500/month towards retirement - that's a bundle!

 

[boosted chemist]

Thanks dude i appreciate it, im interested in the difference between the filter area and the fuge baffle, mainly how high and how large the bottom opening is.

 

[daveml]

Here's a picture of my 30G long that I have under my 90 gallon display. The 30g gives me enough space for my Octo Extreme 160 a BRS reactor and some live rock. I mounted my dosers to the inside of the tank to dose Cal and Alk.

 

[Paradiddle7]

Nice setup Dave. I had a similar setup in a 20g under my 90. I had a LFS reactor hanging over the outside of the sump, which scared me a bit because the LFS fittings are pretty poor. I'm using 2 BRS reactors now that I'm in the basement, but my setup was idential to yours, including the baffles and placement of everything.