starting a sump

[get-a-fish]

hey everyone, I would like to have a sump for my two protein skimmers my tank is a 135 and is sitting on a wood stand so I have room underneath. My protein skimmers are coaralife 220 by the way these skimmers work great but are big so I would like to put them in a sump.My problem is for my size tank I don't know how big of a sump to by and I'm not sure how to do the plumbing for the sump and i'm not sure how to get the water flowing from tank to sump. I was wondering if anyone has done this before maybe they could lead me in the right direction. thank you any info will probably help... get the right information and do the job right the first time.

 

[rljlll]

on my 90gal im setting up i will have it gravity fed to the sump where the skimmer will be then pass a partition into a fuge area for more cleaning the water then a few sponges to take down the micro bubble if any then mag 9.5 back to tank i will also have a mag 12 on a closed loop i think not 100% sure on that yet but it seems better than a billion ugly power heads

 

[joeyf]

My protein skimmers are coaralife 220 by the way these skimmers work great but are big

Tell me about it. I love the skimmer, but it is huge! I have one in my 18g sump on my 90g. Just so you know, the reccomended size for the chamber that coralife gives is not true. It technically will fit, but without the bubble box or anything else. I would suggest a 10x12" area for each.

 

[dgin]

You will have to answer a few questions before getting some more specific advice.

- what are the dimensions of your tank stand?
- is your tank reef ready (i.e. built in overflows)?
- how big are the openings on your tank stand?

Generally speaking, you should have a sump about 20% or more of your main tank volume. There is a sump size calculator on Reefcentral's homepage that you can use to help figure out a minimum size.

I have often found that if you don't have a sump in mind when the tank stand is built or bought, you won't be able to maximize the room under the tank.

Water will be gravity fed to the sump. You will need a return pump to push the water back into the main tank. The return pump will be sized based on the amount of flow your overflows can handle.