I hope I am posting this correctly. My first attempt. I just purchased a 24x24x12 drilled Deep Blue with a home made unfinished stand that still requires a finished top and door. I have never used or built a sump, other than built in biocube sumps, which don't really count. I went out and purchased a 20g high tank as a sump. I have not installed it yet. I thought of the idea of using one of my 29g biocubes as a sump. It happens to fit into the stand like a glove. I want to push the return to the limit with the highest reasonable flow rate while keeping the refugium flow rate reasonably low. That is part of why I thought of the biocube. I don't have much for options if I use the 20g high. Its either high flow with poor fuge utilization or low flow with poor return flow rate. People keep saying that's what flow pumps are for, but it's a rimless and I would like to prevent wires from overhanging on the tank and I'm not spending $300 for a vortech magnet pump. I do understand that it may be an inevitability, but I want to try. Also, I am a firm believer of more flow the better. I have been speaking to Dan at World of Fish and Jason at Petco Minnetonka. Both guys are fricking awesome and I have much respect for them. I mentioned the biocube idea to them and they both really liked the concept, but said it's just a matter of how. I have a few sloppy drawings of ideas written on paper, but my main idea is to increase the size of the sump to half the size of the tank. Use a Rio 3100 for main return in sump portion and the original biocube pump for pulling a portion of that water into the refugium and over flow back to the sump. The idea is to have four chambers for the sump and then a separate camber for refugium that has its own lower flow. I need a good solid design for the sump
area. I'm looking for opinions and pros and cons of either 20g high or biocube. Ideas on biocube layouts as sump. Possible ways of adding a 2-5 gallon fresh water topoff reservoir possibly mounted inside the stand above the sump. I really look forward to the feedback and help!
Sump design help
- Thread starter SeanMpls
- Start date
rwb500
Active member
you're gonna need either some in-tank powerheads or a closed loop system. you can't get enough flow in your tank from only the return pump.
also you can just do a simple chaeto fuge. more flow is better for chaeto, and it is better at nutrient export than whatever you are thinking of doing with a slow fuge.
also you can just do a simple chaeto fuge. more flow is better for chaeto, and it is better at nutrient export than whatever you are thinking of doing with a slow fuge.
Ya, an ATS sounds like a very good way to go and I guess I'm just going to have to live with stupid wires hanging over. I am NOT spending $200 for a vortech even though I really want one. I'm looking at getting a switching current water director for the return and utilizing both knockouts on the overflow box. The box is in the corner. So water would push around the take to the left and switch to the right.
rwb500
Active member
An ATS is kind of a pain in the butt and not recommended for someone new to the hobby. Some chaeto will do all of the nutrient export that you need. i will re-emphasize that your return pump alone will not be enough flow. It doesn't matter if you have the SCWD. One koralia in each back corner would be great. You might be able to get by with just one for the whole tank, but if it was me I would start with two for sure.
If you really want to avoid wires and powerheads you could do a closed loop pump system.
If you really want to avoid wires and powerheads you could do a closed loop pump system.
