Sump Question

jumeda33

New member
Hi everybody. I am planning on trying to build a sump. I was thinking about a 30 gallon glass tank. I thought I would make the first compartment the area where my drains come in and my skimmer sits. Then I thought I would have a middle section just for the water to run through. (No Refugium). Then the three baffles for the return pump section. My question is, if the power goes out, does the water back up into the whole sump or just a certain compartment of the sump? Also, does my design sound about right?
Thanks,
David
 
Sounds good to me. Same way mine is tho I use center for refugium . Power failure water will fill up the whole sump. Just make sure the sump will hold all the water that will drain down to sump, or use check valves.
 
The water backs up into your return area.

I would have to ask why not use the extra space? You could put LR , or even some Cheato?

My sump has dual drains in the first compartment, with my skimmer, middle section is my return area, and right section is my Refugium, which the return pump Tee's off of. And I control the flow their with a gate valve

Also you didn't mention the size of you DT tank?

Sumps us alley are the largest you can fit. Min being 30% of your DT voloum
 
Ok guys. Now I am confused. One of you say the water fills the whole sump and the other says it fills the return which I assume would be the compartment where my return pump is. Please clarify. Also, to answer some of your questions, I didn't want to bother with another light and fan etc... for a refugium and my DT is a 150. My current sump is an old wet/dry that is about 20 gallons. It came with the tank but quite some time ago I removed the bio balls, filters etc.. and cut the top off it so I could fit a skimmer in it. Needless to say, the sump has one baffle right in the middle of it so right now I only have two compartments. Oh, forgot to mention that I also have double drain lines.
Thanks for the input. Any more is greatly appreciated.
David
 
Where ever your return pump sits, that's the compartment that floods first

As far as check valves, I wouldn't add one, its another mechanical part to maintain.

When you loose power, what ever is in your overflow box's, will drain drain down with what ever is in your return lines, until the siphon breaks

A 30 sump for a 150DT seems small.
 
Hey diver,
Thanks for responding. So the section where my return pump will be needs to be able to handle an outage. I agree 30 seems small but that is about the max I can fit under the tank. The one there now is about 20 I am guessing. The 30 would be about 17" high which would allow me just enough room to get my hands in there to do things. I would like to go lower but I am afraid that when I get a new skimmer it will need more water which means I would need more room for backflow during an outage. My max. height for a skimmer is 25" so I would even have trouble putting one up on blocks to get it in a water level that would work. All this thinking can give you a headache. LOL
Thanks,
David
 
The return pump area of your sump should not be too large, this will prevent a large amount of water being pumped up to the DT if something goes wrong. When the power goes out this will fill up first followed by the rest of the sump depending on how much water drains from the display. A 30gallon will work, I have one on my 120, just make sure you have a siphon break on your return line and the sump can accommodate the water from the DT. Refugiums can be nice but are extra work/electric etc, I didn't opt for one. I would also skip the check valve as previously mentioned.
 
Design seems fine but I agree with size.. if it's the max you can fit, then you can't really do anything about it. The problem is, when you build in the safety factor for power outtage, you are only going to have maybe 20 or so gallons of actual water. Like everyone is saying, I wouldn't use a check valve, just design your sump so you have plenty of room for extra water, I also have enough room if for some reason my ATO empties into my sump (most likely will never happen).
 
Hi everybody. I am planning on trying to build a sump. I was thinking about a 30 gallon glass tank. I thought I would make the first compartment the area where my drains come in and my skimmer sits. Then I thought I would have a middle section just for the water to run through. (No Refugium). Then the three baffles for the return pump section. My question is, if the power goes out, does the water back up into the whole sump or just a certain compartment of the sump? Also, does my design sound about right?
Thanks,
David

Just to clear up some confusion, the answer to your question is if you have a power failure, the whole sump will eventually fill up, not just one compartment.
 
The reason I suggested a check valve is , your sump may not be able to handle all the water from your D.T. if you have a power failure. Its just a option.....
 
Yeah, definently test the tank out by turning the return off and seeing if the water floods the sump, if not your fine, if it does you have to use a check valve
 
Thank you everybody for answering. I think I finally get it. Lets see. So if the power goes out the water in the overflows will come backwards down the return lines and fill the return pump compartment first, then eventually the water will work its way to the other compartments filling the rest of the sump. Next, about the size. Right now I have about 15 gallons of actual water in what is probably about a 20 gallon old wet/dry so by going to a 30 will be a little larger but not much. I wish I could go with something a little less tall to give me more room to work but then I am back to worrying about backflow room. I also did some other figuring with my current sump. Here goes. Remember it is an old wet/dry. It is 17" tall on one side and works its way down to 13" tall on the other which is the side my return pump is in. It is overall 30" long and about 12" wide. It has one baffle in the middle that sits about an inch up off the bottom. I run about 8" of water which leaves me about 5" overflow. I have tested this and sure enough, the water comes almost to the top of the sump when I pull the plug. Given this, are there any redesign ideas out there? My max height I can go skimmer wise is 25" which still leaves me about 1/2" to remove the cup. I am thinking about getting a reef octopus DC200 as recommended by Jeremy at Coralvue. Thanks for everybodys help.
David
 
Here is an update since I have been researching this morning. I am going to get the Reef Octopus DC 200 (DCS-200INT). Seems like it has two model numbers. Anyway it says it only needs 5.5 - 6.5 inches of water for the recommended depth. It is 23.4" tall. Should I use my 25" max and make that compartment deeper and then raise the skimmer up or should I just make my first baffle to their recommended depth. I could probably get another couple inches of water in that compartment if that is important.
 
Just a thought, how about their Reef Octopus POV-DC1 ?

My POV-DC1 is 21" tall. I run my sump at 10" of water, and have the skimmer on a egg crate

 
When I built my sump, I built the return area big enough, so ONLY the return area floods

You can see the high / low magic markers, ,when I put the Apex Controller in Feed Mode, the return pumps, power heads, skimmer all shut down for 10 minutes



 
Hey diver,
Great pix. Thanks a bunch. Funny you should mention the POV-1. When I explained to Jeremy at Coralvue what I had he actually suggested the POV-2 or the DC-200. I am going to study or pictures a little closer and see if I can do about the same thing you did.
Thanks again.
David
 
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