What would you change with this sump design?

[40gal]

I'm considering building a custom sump for my 45 cube. I'm currently running a 20H as the sump with a 10G topoff reservoir next to it. I want to eliminate the 10G tank to expand the sump area. Below is a to-scale drawing of what I was thinking.

I have a couple things that I would like to build into the sump.

1. Have more room for maintenance
2. Have drop-in filter socks
3. Have a fuge section
4. Have more room for maintenance

My current sump is really hard to work in. My skimmer fits, but barely. Removing it to clean is not an option in the current setup.

Here's what I've drafted. I need to get measurements and make this to scale, but wanted to get feedback if I should change anything up before I got too far.

Where should I drain the fuge? I have it draining into the skimmer section in the sketch. For the sake of the pod population, I'm thinking that overflowing into the return section would be better, however I'm concerned that microbubbles will be introduced into the return section. The flow may be low enough that it isn't a problem.
Currently, this should give me about 7 gallons of refugium space, and an 8" water height in the skimmer section. I will add top-off water and any supplements to the filter sock section, as the flow here should theoretically be the highest. The four small holes in the top are for JG fittings to accomplish this. The two cylinders shown are heaters - just to make sure they would fit.

I'm only on my second sump, so hopefully I will get some inputs from others as far as modifications to this design based on experience.

 

[shifty51008]

what is the little drop for where the filter sock area is? also do you have anywhere for the water to go if the fiiter socks clog? other than over the top of the tank?

I think the pods will be fine if you overflow to the skimmer section they are tough and small and can make it through a skimmer, just like a return pump.

 

[thegrun]

I prefer to simply run the drain lines directly into the filter socks and remove the section you show that the drains empty into, the filter socks will trap any bubbles if that is why you have that section. What are the two pipes that run across the sump just below the drain lines for?

 

[shifty51008]

What are the two pipes that run across the sump just below the drain lines for?

those are his heaters

 

[thegrun]

those are his heaters

Thanks!

 

[40gal]

what is the little drop for where the filter sock area is? also do you have anywhere for the water to go if the fiiter socks clog? other than over the top of the tank?

I think the pods will be fine if you overflow to the skimmer section they are tough and small and can make it through a skimmer, just like a return pump.

So I have two cutouts at the top of the area with the filter socks that will allow water to overflow from that section if the filter socks get clogged up. You can't see them from the angle that I have shown. The little drop area in that section is where the overflows will dump into so that I can keep the drains below water level. I also didn't want to have the drains in the filer socks because it seems it would be harder to pull/change the filter socks, as I'd have to work around the drain lines. In this design, the water will overflow into the filter socks so I can just pop them out.

I prefer to simply run the drain lines directly into the filter socks and remove the section you show that the drains empty into, the filter socks will trap any bubbles if that is why you have that section. What are the two pipes that run across the sump just below the drain lines for?

Shifty nailed it - heaters. I just put them there to make sure I had room for everything. See above for my reasoning on the drains. I'm not set on this, but I've seen both designs and it seems that this would be easier to maintain/service.

 

[shifty51008]

I think the design will work good otherwise.

I'm not sure how high you plan on keeping the water level in the return section but if to low you could get micro bubbles from the drop. just as a heads up.

but after looking at the setup again I see the water go through the filter socks into the section with the heaters then you have 2 baffles on the left side but I don't see a spot for where the goes from that section as you have the slots in the (i'm guessing fuge section) to drain into the return section.

 

[40gal]

My plan was to feed the fuge off of a manifold from my return pump so I can regulate flow through there better. So the flow would go from the DT to the filter socks, through the skimmer section, over/under the baffles and to the return pump. From there, it will flow through the manifold which will feed the fuge, the media reactor and the DT.

 

[shifty51008]

ok now it makes sence I was completly wrong about what each section was for lol. I guess staying awake for 35 hours don't help. the manifold will work but I find it better if the fuge works better if getting raw water rather than cleaned water.

 

[40gal]

Agreed, and I thought of that also. Splitting my drain line would be an option, but I'd like to keep the fuge as clean as possible. You should see how bad my sump/fuge is right now.

Aside from flowing through the filter sock, only a portion of the water would have flowed through the skimmer, so I'm thinking between the fuge and the media reactor, they can both feed off of whatever is missed.

 

[shifty51008]

I don't blame ya for wanting to keep the fuge clean, I just cleaned mine and had enough poo and gunk on the bottom to fill 1/4 of a 5 gal bucket. yet my nitrates stayed at less than 5ppm and p04 was at .02.

so let's say you do drain the tank to the filter sock section only and then the skimmer section drains into the fuge, I don't see a spot for the fuge to drain.

 

[40gal]

So what I was saying is have the DT drain to both the filter sock section and the fuge, then have the fuge and filter sock section drain to skimmer section, which would flow to the return pump section. I'm not sold on that though, because any detritus from the tank would end up in the fuge since it doesn't flow through the filter socks first.

 

[shifty51008]

understand, I think that will work either way you have the flow. wether from the return pump or the split drain