Help me design my sump?

[Llarian]

So I'm finally down to designing a sump for my system. Unfortunatly, I've got extremely limited space under the stand due to overbuilding the stand frame far more than I should have. The net result, is my sump footprint can't be much bigger than 22"x17.5" (Probably 12" high, although that's a little less of a concern.)

It ends up being nearly square, and I'm used to seeing 2:1 or larger width to length ratios.

I sketched out just a really basic idea, but I'm sure there's a much better way to do it.

Some datapoints: the skimmer is an AquaC Urchin Pro w/ a Mag3 pump. The return pump is a Mag7. The heater is some brand I forgot, but the heating element is about 11" long, and will probably have to go width-wise in the sump. I would like to have a small filter shelf at the overflow input so I can run filter socks/carbon there as needed, but the design I sketched out it only ends up being 6"x7.5", I'm not sure if that's enough.

Help? heh

Thanks,
Dylan

(Drawing is more or less to scale, except that I think I drew the return pump a little small, but 4" is the correct clearance.)

 

[sherm71tank]

You'll have live rock in the tank? Get rid of the rock in the sump and use that space for other things. Redesign it so you can use the space for your filter sock.

 

[Llarian]

Doesn't necessarily have to be Liverock, I was mostly planning on tossing a bunch of LR rubble down there. I just want an unlit place without any predatory fish for pods to breed.

Any specific suggestions on how to redesign it?

-Dylan

 

[sherm71tank]

No nothing specific. It looks like a clean setup. I was only suggesting that was the easiest method to give yourself more room for the sock thats all. I'm sure you already thought of it anyway. I just use the rock in my tank for the "pods" and I keep a Mandarin that does just fine on unsuspecting critters that wonder to far.

 

[Llarian]

No other comments on this?

I'm not so concerned about space, so much as I am getting laminar flow through a sump this wide in comparison to the length. Dead spots are apparently bad.

-D

 

[NaH2O]

Dylan - I'm not too sure if you would have a problem or not. My sump is 36X18. I am quite a bit longer than you are, so I don't know if it would work, but perhaps removing the first baffle. I have 2 baffles after the filter sock/skimmer compartment, then into my live rock/heater/monitor area then 2 baffles to my return compartment. Had I actually slept last night, I'd be able to tell you what the length of each compartment is. I have my heaters mounted on the baffles - one on each side - I'm not quite sure what else I will be putting in here - my monitor probes are attached to the front side. The live rock also serves as an extra bubble catcher. I think I'm now rambling...am I rambling? lol

I'll have to think about the dead spot question...

 

[kimoyo]

Hey Dylan,

There are a couple of suggestions I have. Your design to the right of the live rock looks good but if the live rock area is going to be a refugium then you should remember that your flow rate can't be that high running thru there. There are ways to design it so you refug flow doesn't get affected by your sump flow rate (such as suspending your refug or putting it after your return pump) but I decided to just take the refug out of my design and use my sump for flow, filtration, and top-off. Something else you have to remember is that your evaporation will take place near your return pump, so you might want to make your return area larger. With such a limited space, I would forget the middle section and just have two compartments separated by 3 baffles. You could also put the some live rock and a heater in the last section.

The width of the sump is important, the wider it is the faster flow you can have going thru your sump without bubbles in the end. As Kevinpro explained to me you should think of it as a river. When the water gets bottled into narrow channels it will get faster and more turbulent. I'm not positive but I wouldn't think your width-length ratio will have a negative effect. Take a look at the thread I started a few days before yours about sump flow. How fast is your flow going to be?
Another option I've seen people do is redirect the flow throughout the sump. Instead of going left to right you can put turns in your sump flow like a maze. Take a look at the sumps on this page http://barraquatic.com/index.html. Hope this helps.
Paul

 

[The Claw]

Here is what I have. Its a 10 gallon aquarium, and the refugium it is attached to is an 18 gallon rubbermaid container. The pump I use is a mag9.5. This is off of my 180 gallon tank. I'll apologize now if this doesn't show up, I'm new to your site and haven't got all of the posting procedures down yet.

 

[The Claw]

OK that didn't work. On the left end, the overflow flows in from the aquarium. I have it flow over a small batch of liverock just for kicks and giggles. Then there are multiple baffles to get rid of any airbubbles. You can place carbon here if you want too. The main compartment in the middle is where my mag9.5 sits, ph probe, temp probe, etc. The return has a t which directs water to my sump. I have two overflows from it that come back into the sump. Two more baffles connect this to the main compartment again. The other pipe goes to the return to my tank. In the refugium I have liverock, 4 inch sandbed, macroalgae and this is where my heater is. I'll try to work on getting my diagram on here, but that might not happen anytime soon. I hope this helps. The only problem I have is that I wish the sump was taller so that I had extra space in case of electrical outages (water flowing back into it from syphon) I can evaporate that much water in a day, and I haven't built any top off systems yet.