Sump in the outdoors?

chola1978

New member
Good afternoon/morning/ night to all reef keepers...
Before every one goes wild... with the temperature drop or change
I leave in Santiago in the centrla valley fo the Dominican Republic.. we are a tropical country...
My house is located in the foothills so I have very pleasant weather year round in average 80F in winter it drops to a cold 70f.

Now My question is...
My wife does not want me to build a new stand for my Show tanks a 75Gallong acrylic. And i have 50 Gallon Sump I am planing on adding so I cna keep water leves with more easze...
I plan on Startign with LR and some friendly local fish Caribbean fish...
I ma about 20minutes form the ocean and my LSF does nto carry salt water anything... their idea of this hobby is a goldfish....
My display tank will be in the hosue and I have a cover patio where I pal on putting my sump with protection form critters entering into(nylon mosquito nets)
Can i get away with leaving my sump in the open air?
This set up is almos done9pluming and I ma i nno rush to put any life anything i nto it till everything is workign fine...
I nfact I have some Old Dead rock(was alive but have been out of the tan kfor over a year)... as my base rock and might jsut get some rocks that i cna find i nthe shallwo water fo the near by beach to get some bacteria growing...Unfortunately i have no local reasorse for life rock.. and it would be pretty experience to ship here..plus things like that spend 40 days in local wild life protection office to make sure its safe to bring in....
In my sump I plan on putting some vegetation a Canister filter with a phosphate media inside.. a skimmer..
I have little 350gl per hour submersible pump that i pal to use for my return line...
The distances from the pump to display thanks is less thnat 20Inches since I plan on putting right behind the block walls and just making 2 holes for pluming.......
Ah lightihn I have a delux coralig 4 light CF that give me good light for fish and some coral that are not light thirsty...
Well this should be good for the first year or so till everythign in my tanks its up to part...
A poors an atemp to getting back into to the hobby I have beeen gone for a wile now....
 
There is no reason the sump couldn't be outdoors as long as you can handle the temperature swings. Extra heating capacity will be a must for cold days. I would worry about needing a chiller on hot days, if you are trying to get by without spending much money, outdoors may be a problem.
 
It can work, but it could be more work to make it work. You have much less control over the outdoors in terms of heat, contaminants, etc.

If you do this, you will belong to a very unique crowed of hobbyists. This could make good advice hard to come by. So in essence, you'll be writing the book on this one.
 
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