unusual sump idea?

[ABATTLEDONKEY]

good after noon all,
ive been racking my brain lately on how to create an affordable, easy sump creation that fits my stand. I've already decided to go with the sump placed above my main tank, and having recently been laid off i want to keep my additions to an all time low in costs. so my idea is as follows, and please be patient as i might be bad at explaining this:

rather than have one central tank, divided into sections, i figured why not take multiple smaller tanks, and hook them together. i also figured why buy aquariums when i can just buy some easy to handle plastic totes. now im not sure if those can be toxic or not so please fill me in if they are. my set up, if everything sounds good, will have a pump in my display tank force water up and into my first tote. the first tote will house bio-media. the heater. the protein skimmer, and the auto top off. i will drill a hole in the side of this tote, and place a PVC tube in it to that it connects the first tote to my second tote which will have a hole drilled in the same spot facing the first tote, thus acting as a bridge for the water to flow into the second tote. the second tote will be the refugium portion and, well you all know how that works. on the other side of the second tote i will drill another hole(possibly lower than the first hole lowering the water level and forcing a waterfall effect on the first bridge?) and add another bridge into the 3rd tote which will have an over flow leading down to the main tank. hopefully that will complete a use full and practical cycle.

I'm new at this whole thing and have horrible insight as to the little problems this system might create. this is extremely cheap and is the reason Im pushing on it. I'm looking forward to all the help and appreciate it greatly. also on a side note, how much flow should be circulating through this system?
thanks again
-Paul

 

[rick12]

you can purchase food grade tubs. sounds a bit complicated but i bet it would work great!

 

[ledford1]

For a sump, 3x-5x flow is nice IMO.

I don't have personal experience with setting up a tank/sump above the display tank, but on my 180, I did a similar setup to what you're describing by connecting tanks to act as a single sump. I couldn't get one large tank in the stand, so I connected two smaller tanks. The two tanks are connected by 2 1.5" bulkheads and PVC. Going with 2 connections allows redundancy should one get clogged. I set my connections below the water line, which also acts somewhat as a barrier for bubbles floating across the surface of the first tank.

 

[kgouso]

FYI - I did this (under my tank) when I was starting out.

I used medium sized rubbermaids and drilled holes for bulkheads to move the water from one to the other. Was going to use 1 for the fuge and the other for the sump/skimmer return section.

Here is the catch. You need to make sure that IF the first tub becomes plugged (for any reason) there will be a fail safe that keeps that tub from overflowing.

I did not like the possibility of flood since if that first tub (refugium) becomes fouled (Snails / Cheato / Algea) the overflow would not keep up with the added water and you could get an overflow (very quickly) and depending on how much your system is (mine 125) it could be a lot of water.


I wanted to stay in the low cost route so I opted for 1 rubbermaid tub and a 5 gallon plastic bucket that fit inside the tub. The overflow cant go anywhere but into the sump.....and the level in the tank and sump system is measured so that if either the sump or the tank gets plugged neither one will overflow.

As long as I don't get a plumbing leak or tank crack I have no risk of overflow.

In case your interested here is a pick of my $12.00 sump/fuge.....$238.00 cheaper than the retail acrylic sumps...

[/IMG]

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href="http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh81/vance71975/?action=view&current=NewSumpPlan.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh81/vance71975/NewSumpPlan.jpg" border="0" alt="New and improved sump idea"></a>

Thats how im doing mine!

 

[ABATTLEDONKEY]

wow, thanks guys for all the help.


i noticed how some people have the fuge before the sump. is that something thats recommended? does it matter?

and then of course does it matter what type of glue i use on the pvc? can i buy toxic glue?
thanks

 

[ledford1]

I would have the skimmer before the fuge if you're running them in a linear fashion. What good are the pods and other critters that come out of a fuge good for if they just sucked up in your skimmer?

 

[bertoni]

I have a hard time trusting one overflow and pump, so I wouldn't want to connect a bunch of tanks, personally, but people are successful with a refugium and a separate sump.