Thinking about going with a sump

[Webmanny]

So, as you can imagine, I am tired of the mess of stuff in my tank, the heater (Which I don't think I need in Tampa, but hey), the pump for the skimmer, the skimmer, the intake and output for the canister filter and the wave makers. Plus, I need to put some kind of refugium to battle green hair algae and reduce phosphates.

Therefore, I am thinking of buying an overflow box and adding a sump below. The overflow option is because I just don't want to drill the tank at this time.

Here is the problem. I have a 36G SeaClear bow front and the stand that I have is an off the shelf design that is split down the middle with the two doors (Pic below). Therefore, I only have space for a sump that would be 13"W x 10"L x 30"H.

This is not near enough for a sump with the equipment I have.

What recommendations do you have?

1. Should I drill a hole through the middle partition and make two mini sumps? (The video below shows the concept)
2. Get a new stand that has the proper space under the tank?
3. Just forget the whole sump idea?

If I should go with the custom split sump, where can I go get a custom one here in Tampa?

If I should change the stand, I will need recommendations on someone that can build a custom one for me. I am not that handy with these things.

Your ideas and recommendations will be greatly appreciated.


My stand:

Video of the split design that gave me the idea.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/alZYpx5TykI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[installman]

You could probably run some gfo in your canister filter to get rid of the hair algae. Or use this as an excuse to upgrade to a bigger tank. Like maybe a 180 or something lol.

 

[anbosu]

I'd also probably just get a bigger tank before I went to that much trouble to add a sump.

 

[Webmanny]

Believe me I thought about it, but the space I have is limited and I have used about as much space in that room as my wife will allow without giving me crap every day about it.

Also, I love how this tank looks and my custom built LEDs. I think anything bigger will take too much of my time and money. I honestly believe that going through the efforts of building a stand and adding a sump is worth my while and it will make the tank look much better.

On the subject of the GFO, I currently have GFO running in my canister, but it has done close to nothing in the three weeks that it has been there.

I see the algae turning a bit white, but in the areas where that used to be clean of GHA now are growing some.

I don't know if maybe I just need to wait longer for this to take effect or maybe I didn't add enough gfo.

 

[anbosu]

The GFO may already be exhausted as well.

 

[Webmanny]

ah. Good point. I didn't know that this can get exhausted that quick. I will check the canister today. Is there a way to tell that the GFO is exhausted? Of course I can test, but I can tell you that my Phosphate test has always been at zero, but I still have phosphates.

From I have read, the GHA can make it test zero because it is eating it.

 

[installman]

I really haven't had much experience with gfo to be able to give you specifics on how much to use for a given volume of water or how quckly it can be ehausted. Hopefully someone with more gfo experience will chime in to help.

 

[ReefWhatYouSow]

Can you possibly put it against a wall where you could run your plumbing through the wall and house your sump, etc. on the other side of the wall?

 

[Webmanny]

Nope, but I think I came up with an idea. I'm putting a plastic container on one side and leaving the canister filter in place. I'll run the flow from the tank to the canister, from the canister to the plastic container, which will have the skimmer, heater, some macro and another pump back to the tank.

This should help reduce the clutter in the tank and improve water quality.

I will only have the out to the canister and the return to the tank.

 

[installman]

Just make sure the input to the canister is high enough to not flood your sump if the power goes off . And you will need to figure a way to get the siphon started again if that happens

 

[Webmanny]

Good point. Thank you for your advice.

 

[janes_mw]

Not so sure you want to go that route. If for instance the pump below fails and the canister is running, you could flood the sump .... or the other case where the canister stops and the sump pump empties the sump to the tank and overflows the tank. You would be better off with an overflow box feeding the sump and the canister doing it's thing either connected to the sump and recirculating in the sump or in the tank and recirculating to the tank. An overflow box will self start as well during a power outage.

 

[Webmanny]

Very good point. I agree. Starting at the sump is the way to go.