Sump Suggestions for New 75G

G

GreggCharest

New member
Hello Everyone,

Last week I ordered a 75G Tank, and I am ready to move into the next planning stage. (The tank is pre-drilled, by the way)

The books I have do not do justice to setting up a system with a sump, and since this is the next critical step, I am soliciting your opinions.

Can I purchase a ready made sump that will make life easier (I've heard of many people building their own, and would consider that also, if the price difference could be justified).

I will need a pump. What is the optimal size for the 75, and are there certain brands I should avoid, or brands that are prefered?

I have a Protein Skimmer which can fit into a sump, so that area is covered (a Seaclone 150 - I know many people are not fond of them, but I've never heard why. It works fine on my current setup).

Anything else the sump will need?

Thanks for your time,

Gregg
 
I just set up a 72 (pretty close) and I used a 20 rubbermaid container. For a return pump I recomend the mag 950 (9.5). This seems to be a very good pump. I would avouid quiet one and anything made by rio. I would definetly get the mag 950 and its only about $70. If you are happy with the sea clone and are planning on having a fairly light bio-load then I guess you can stick with it. I have one on my 20 gallon and I am not fond of it. I would definetly recomend you get an ASM G3 (the one I got) or if you can afford it getting a euro-reef. Hope that helps :) :)
 
BTW you didnt mention if you are using RO/DI or tap water. If you were planning on using tap start planning on using RO/DI because that is deffinetly required as you probrobly know.
 
Common sumps include rubbermaid totes, or smaller aquariums. The aquariums are much easier to add baffles too! :) Mag is a cheap staple pump, while a Eheim is a much better pump in the long run.

Check out the sump pages on www.melevsreef.com - lots of good ideas!
 
I just setup a 75 gallon about a month ago. I have a sump that is approx. 30 gallons, but it's only filled about 3/4 of the way. The more volume the better. I have an eheim 1262 as my return, but had to turn it back b/c it was too strong. I had a mag on my 30 gal, they will heat up the water some and have some noise. A reliable pump though. The eheim seems to run a lot cooler and more quiet. I would definitely upgrade the skimmer. A seaclone 150 isn't going to do anything on a 75. If you don't want to spend the money, get a Coralife SS and put it in sump b/c it will overflow. A step up from that would be an Octopus or an ASM. I have an H&S external on my tank and love it. Hope that helps.
 
Re: Sump Suggestions for New 75G

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7920016#post7920016 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreggCharest
a Seaclone 150 - I know many people are not fond of them, but I've never heard why. It works fine on my current setup)
Click to expand...

Thats the problem with skimmers. Yours appears to be working fine, until you buy a better one, and realize how poorly the original was actually working.

As to sumps, you're looking at liek $400 for a premade product vs $50 to DIY. Thats why most DIY.
 
A 40 breeder is a pretty good size sump for a 75 gallon. If you want to diy but don't want to worry about taking measurements and getting glass/acylic cut there's a guy on ebay that sells kits for baffles.
 
40B may not fit. Its 18" deep, same as a 75G. Often, the stand is 17" or less on the inside. 30L makes a good sump too.
 
$50 to DIY? Depends on how you do it I guess.. I built a 15gal sump based on ideas mostly from melev's site (using his acrylic instructions too) and ended up spending $150-200 on materials plus 10+ hours building time and many more hour planning. That doesnt include the $100 routing table (ended up being essential for straightening those acrylic edges).

Maybe $50 if you go with the Rubbermaid or modified aquarium options..

Personally, I'm extremely happy with my decision to build a sump even though it wasn't cheap. It was a lot of fun to plan and build and fits my setup better than anything prebuilt that I found on the internet.
 
$50 if you go with a small *used* aquarium; check the reefcentral buy/sell forum, your local reef club, or local fish stores for used tanks - then go to a hardware store and get some double-thickness glass (1/4") cut just slightly smaller than the internal dimensions of the tank and silicone them in place - the Sears Hardware store that I used to go to sold me "scrap" pieces of glass for like 50-cents, and no charge for the cuts.... that's about as cheap as it gets. If you find a good deal on the tank, it will be much less than $50 - if you have to buy a new tank, it will be just about $50 - and if you ever want to change it, you can cut out the siliconed baffles - not something you can do with acrylic :rolleyes:

Check out melev's site for planning how to place the baffles (Usually under/over/under for the flow of water), and how high and far apart to make them.

for the seaclone - you may consider doing what I did w/ my excalibur skimmer - I simply used a split off of my drain line to feed my in-sump skimmer from the tank's overflow (with a gate valve to precisely control the amount of water going through the skimmer) then I used an deep-water air pump (tetra-tec deepwater 17) along w/ a 3" fine-pore airstone (coralife limewood) to create a simple, but effective counter-current air-driven skimmer for my 65-gallon - there are pictures in my gallery of how this skimmer produced about 1/2-liter of dark skimmate every 3 days.
 
This is a wealth of information. Thank you everyone who has responded this far.

I went to the LFS last night, and the owner (who has beautiful tanks) showed me a sump kit by marineland that he had on his display in the front of the store. He tends to be a little on the pricey side, but it came in at about 230 for the sump alone. He told me I would need to purchase tubing, and fittings as well, another $30.00, plus the pump. He suggested the Mag pumps, I thought it was the MAG 700.

I've heard a lot about Tunze pumps. Any advantages there?

No, I'm not using RO water. It's a complicated situation, but basically I live on an island with no municipal water supply. Our well water is heavily laden with minerals, especially iron, and we have a VERY complicated system to make it potable. This system includes a Chlorine bleach additive, which scares me for use with the fish. Because this is an island, we try very hard to practice water conservation, as well. Doesn't an RO unit produce something like 50% waste water?

I typically use distilled water from Wal-Mart with my 20G, and no problems. Would an RO unit take care of the bleach? Anyone have well water out there?

Great discussion!

Gregg
 
I've had time to check out the Melev Reef rite (thanks to theatrus for pointing me in that direction), and there seems to be a lot of information on construction of sumps on his site. Worthwhile for anyone to check out, if you haven't already.

Anyone have thoughts on the RO issue?

Thanks in advance,

Gregg
 
If you are very concerned about water quality and not wasting water, you can get a kold-sterile unit.

After having used one, I think they work OK (as they don't remove everything, so you still have some residual minerals/nitrates) but they do remove all the really "bad" stuff in incoming water, including the cholrine/chloramine (activated carbon filters on any water filtration device will all do this) and heavy metals.

I prefer to use an RO/DI for the "cleanest" water possible, but the Kold-Sterile will do the job in a pinch :thumbsup:
 
I have well water and I've had a RO unit for 12 years just for my kitchen use. It works well and takes almost everything out of the water. My kitchen RO unit reduces the dissolved solids in my water from 150 ppm to 10 ppm. My new RODI unit (purchased from EBay for about $130) takes the RO water down to 5 ppm and the RO/DI water to 1 ppm.

Because my water pressure isn't really strong, water doesn't gush out of my RO units. However, I'm in no hurry so that's ok.

People have set up their RO/DI systems to catch the waste water and use it to wash clothes, water plants, etc. The waste water doesn't have to go down the drain.

HTH,

Lynn
 
Sorry for the delay in response - I've been in Vermont with my in-laws, and the internet can be a little spotty.

Thanks for the info on RO/DI with well water, Duchess.

MadtownMax - is Kold-Sterile the brand name, or model name? I won't be able to search for this on line until we return home, but any advance information is helpful.

Thanks again for your help. I have since purchased a pre-cut sump kit off of e-bay, and will let everyone know how it works out. I expect that it will be arriving some time soon.

Best Regards,

Gregg
 
Thanks Thor,

I ended up doing just that, and ordering a kit off ebay for all the baffles. The tank was brand new and cost about $40.00, and the baffle kit was a little pricey at $70.00, but this is still far cheaper than using a "major brand" pre-fab sump. The price for one of those was almost $100.00 more expesive.

Thanks

Gregg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Hydros w/sump
Replies
3
Views
174
wvned
wvned
jamesthomson2
Can anyone suggest a sump pump?
Replies
1
Views
415
griss
griss
K
Seeding Marine Pure Gems
Replies
6
Views
320
SantaMonica
S
S
Overskimming on New Protein Skimmer
Replies
2
Views
183
wvned
wvned
S
Small Sump Leak - Worth fixing?
Replies
1
Views
156
griss
griss
Back
Top