size sump?

[LovenBama]

Setting-up a 125g and was wondering what would be a good size sump for it.....it came with a 30g but thinking it's not big enough to house the two return pumps, 2 over-flow hoses and skimmer plus wanted to do a refugium this time...all thoughts and or suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

[JR's Reef]

Why 2 returns pumps? You know you can just run 1 pump and tee it off to go to both returns. If it was me and could find sumthin I would do a 4ft sump if its a 6ft long tank that would give you all the room you need. A 55gal tank would work but there a bit tall and not real wide for a sump but many people use them

 

[atlantisaquari]

i think 2 pumps is cool. if one goes down your still runnin. plus you dont have to lose as much flow runnin through a tee. also help get your gph's up there. a 40 breeder would be cool or a 40or 30 long dependin on what else you gotta put down there. a 55 is kinda tall but if you silicone a divider in there for the pump you could do a decent refugium

 

[wpecoul]

I would suggest a 40 breeder. IMO, a 55G is a poor choice due to the narrow footprint - hard to fit much of a skimmer into it.
I would let the decision on one or two return pumps rest on how much in-tank flow you are going to have and what kind of pumps they are. If they are Mags or another high-wattage (and heat) pump, I'd go with one and use some Koralia's in-tank. In fact, unless they are smaller models, I think I'd do that in any event - clean the other pump up and keep it as a spare.
It's a piece of cake to cut acrylic baffles and silicone them into the tank to make a refugium. I'd run a drain into both sides of a three-compartment sump, set up (left to right) as skimmer compartment, return area, refugium.
Have fun!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I'd use a 30 or 40 breeder tank, too, as others suggested.

I don't like the height of the sump for my 180. The tall sump makes it difficult to work with a decent size skimmer. A lot of newer well designed skimmers are pretty big and requires enough room above the sump to remove for cleaning.

You also need to make your baffles not too tall for your skimmer. I had to build a platform for my skimmer since the water column needs to be 8 to 10 inches deep for my Octopus 200. My baffles made my water depth more like 14 inches. I wish that I had known all these requirements before I ordered my sump. Although I did not know that I had to replace my skimmer at that time, I should have made my sump more adaptable to newer equipment just in case.

 

[wpecoul]

How do you like the Octopus 200, Tomoko? Did you set up the mesh mod?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I like it very much. I did not set it up with the mesh mod since I read a number of posts that said that the outcome is not really worth the efforts.

 

[JR's Reef]

If the tank is a standard 125 I dont think a 40beeder will fit under the stand. The 125 is 18W and that is what the 40b is that is why I said sumthing different.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

30 breeder dimension is 36 x 18 x 12. I hope that your stand can accomodate it. Otherwise, 33 long is 48 x 13 x 12. 20 long is 30 x 12 x 12.

 

[gflat65]

You can always have Ty at Ocea make specially for your app.

My thoughts on double returns is that since generally, many recommend not running water too fast through your sump. Some of the 'conventional wisdom may have changed over the years, but the rule of thumb I used was to max turn over rate through the sump/fuge to 10x and pick upthe rest of the flow requirements with a closed loop or internal powerheads. That's not to say you won't have success rnning more water through the sump (many do it), but that was the general rule when I was setting up my tank. I do run two returns (Hagen 901's-old style), but figure that with head losses, I'm getting around 1200-1300 gph (est- 900 gph per with zero head). On a 125 with a 50 gallon sump/fuge, that's still less than 10x turn over.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Ty at Ocea made my sump. It's his standard design. It's very well build, but as I mentioned, the sump and its baffles are too tall. If you are going to get one made by him, you need to specify the sump and baffle hights to meet your need.