Water level in my custom sump

BlackTip

Active member
Is the water level in the individual chambers alright, or should I lower it?

The protein skimmer will be in the second chamber from the left. It will be elevated 5". I am afraid it my flood, when the return pumps are turned off.

From left to right:

Drain
skimmer
Carbon/GFO/UV
Return pumps
Refugium

Thanks,
 

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What an odd design. How does the right most chamber get water? Is there a feed off the drain? The return pump? I don't see the point of this many chambers.
 
What an odd design. How does the right most chamber get water? Is there a feed off the drain? The return pump? I don't see the point of this many chambers.

I explained my design choice in another thread. The fuge will be fed from the drain line. Is the water level ok as it is, or is it too high?
 
The water level will more than likely be fine, why so many baffles?

Eventually, I'd like to run a BioPellet, GFO, and Carbon reactors. I want to house all of the equipment inside the sump. Also, I want each device to operate independent from each other. So, they can be turned on/off, and taken out for maintenance without effecting other devices.

My research tells me that BioPellet output should be skimmed. UV, Carbon, and GFO reactors works best with skimmed/filtered water.

To accomplish the above requirements, I am going to house the GFO in the first chamber. The output line will go over the baffle, and then plumped to or placed close to the skimmer intake. This way I will increase the probability of most of the BioPellet output be skimmed before returning to the tank.

Second chamber will go the skimmer.

In the third chamber I will place the Carbon/GFO and the UV pumps. The UV will have its own pump. The return outlet lines from all three will go over the baffle to the return chamber. This way, I will increase the probability that the water fed to all three devices are skimmed first.

Some may ask why not combine the GFO/Carbon/UV chamber with the return chamber. If I do that, I have to plump all outlets into the return lines. Too much plumping. Or, I place the outlet lines back to the same chamber. If I do that, I will loose efficiency. Because some of the returned water will find its way back to the inlets.

The last chamber is the fuge. It will be fed by a split from the drain line. The amount of water will be controlled by a valve for slow water movement. I am planning on growing food in that chamber.
 
I would not recommend a valve on the drain line at all. It would be best to feed the fuge with a split from the return line with a valve.
 
If I am readig this correctly the drain is on the far left and flows left to right.

If this is the case, the far right chamber will not raise above 11".

Or am I missing something?
 
If I am readig this correctly the drain is on the far left and flows left to right.

If this is the case, the far right chamber will not raise above 11".

Or am I missing something?

The far right chamber is a fuge and will be fed directly from the drain line.
 
Water level in all chambers should be the same. First wall is Overflowing to second chamber, second chamber overflows to third, third UNDER flows (ie gap at bottom) to fourth chamber, which underflows to fifth chamber or some arrangement with at least one underflow in the sequence, which prevents crud from getting to the last chamber, where your pump is. Sump level should be measured in the first place with all pumps off, tank above drained down as much as it can. Restart pumps, mark a fill line on the sump outer wall and never, ever let the sump have water above the fill line. Sump level thus cannot overflow when power is off.
 
Water level in all chambers should be the same.

Why does the water level in all chambers need to be the same? In fact most of the time the return section is lower than all the others. You can have the water level at different heights, you just need to make sure there is enough open space in the sump to handle all the water in case of a power outage.
 
Your sump is about 100 gallons, a quick volume calculation shows that if your baffle compartments are all full, you'll be around 65 gallons. That leaves you 35 gallons to spare, so it would depend on how much will drain from your tank when the pump is off.

That depends on a few different factors - how much will flow out of your overflow before it stops, and how much will get siphoned from the return line before it breaks siphon.

Additionally - its probably inconsequential, but if you use 0.22 inch thick acrylic for the baffles, that will take out 1.76 inches out of whatever you glue last if you don't account for it.
 
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