sump?

[daytonaconnecti]

it looks like the mag drive pump 9.5 gives you 800gph at 4ft, to me thats sound about right, but what do i know

 

[daytonaconnecti]

so am i going in the right direction with this?

 

[WA coral]

you dont need that much flow through the sump for that small of a tank sometimes less is more and also cheaper just leave your cl the way it is and add a mag 7 for return from the sump you can run those submerged or external so how ever you want to plumb it will work if space is an issue. get a decent sized overflow box I usally get one rated for double the amount of flow meaning if you are putting 500 gph through it get an overflow rated at 1000 gph and think about getting an aqua lifter for keeping the siphon for the overflow it is cheap insurance. just like others have said drill a small hole in the return pipe just above the water line so if power goes out it wont drain your tank to the sump and test it by turning off the pump and see how high the water level is in the sump so you know the max running height of the water level in the sump. andy

 

[daytonaconnecti]

you dont need that much flow through the sump for that small of a tank sometimes less is more and also cheaper just leave your cl the way it is and add a mag 7 for return from the sump you can run those submerged or external so how ever you want to plumb it will work if space is an issue. get a decent sized overflow box I usally get one rated for double the amount of flow meaning if you are putting 500 gph through it get an overflow rated at 1000 gph and think about getting an aqua lifter for keeping the siphon for the overflow it is cheap insurance. just like others have said drill a small hole in the return pipe just above the water line so if power goes out it wont drain your tank to the sump and test it by turning off the pump and see how high the water level is in the sump so you know the max running height of the water level in the sump. andy

thanks andy, is their any benifits to running in/ex pumps, also in case i get a deal on a bigger pump, could i just put a tee on the return line at the sump, with two ball valves and dump some of the return back into the sump? and adj as needed

 

[WA coral]

only benifit to external is less heat usally in the water. and the idea with the t will work but most times things get more complicated than the need to be and it causes problems. in this case the most likely problem will be turbulant water in the sump causing micro bubbles and increased power draw and heat with bigger pump but will work. if you wanted to use the cl pump just valve it. it just puts more strain on the pump and sometimes causes micro bubbles depending on how much you restrict it.

 

[jrgilles]

I'm kind of new to the field, but just finished designing my own sump/fuge system, so I can echo back some advice I got.

1. First, if you want to throttle down, put a split off of the return line that goes back into the tank (with a valve in it so you can control it.) Just putting a valve in the return line to throttle down does so at the cost of pump wear, as what you are doing is essentially cranking up the head pressure to control the water flow. Not good for pump life.

2. I have a 75 DT, 20 fuge and a 50 sump. I'm running an eheim 1262 (900 gph, doing about 650-700 gph at head pressure.) From what I researched this is a decent rate. For a 48, I'd think you would want to downsize one or 2 models, maybe keep it to 400-500 at head pressure? The eheim pumps got good reviews and are efficient (low wattage) so any extra cost will be made up over time in electric bills.

3. I was also going to do a sump/fuge with my 50 breeder sump, but after much discussion, I took the fuge out, as there wasn't really room for it all in there. A big return tank is a good thing. I added the fuge in next to my tank in a 20 Tall tank, and just have it gravity fed (split off from tank drain, then it overflows into the sump.) This kept more room in the sump. I was looking at a buddy's sump with a fuge in it, he had algae growing all over the place, in all the chambers. If you are able to keep the sump in the dark, you won't get algae all over it.

Anyway, thats some of the info I've recieved from people.

Oh, I also put a check valve in the return line (as well as drilling holes) so if the power goes out, I have multiple ways to break the syphon.

I also put 2 drain lines on each tank, so there is always a backup incase one gets clogged

rob

 

[daytonaconnecti]

i was thinking like this View attachment 37682 pic from melevsref site

 

[daytonaconnecti]

if one of my cl are just for water movement anyway, its a 1330 gph, if i used if for the return, given the lenght to the sump and the hight to the top of the tank, and this View attachment 37684 1200 gph overflow would it work?

 

[WA coral]

the overflow looks good for less than 1000 gph like I said I would only use 700 gph but thats just me. the pic of melves sump is a split in the drain not the return and that should be fine

 

[daytonaconnecti]

the overflow looks good for less than 1000 gph like I said I would only use 700 gph but thats just me. the pic of melves sump is a split in the drain not the return and that should be fine

isnt this the return View attachment 37691

 

[daytonaconnecti]

ami looking at the pic wrong?

 

[jrgilles]

ami looking at the pic wrong?

I didn't reply before because I couldn't figure out the picture. It kind of looks like a return because of where it is located (Marc likes to have a return tank in the middle, and a fuge to one side with the fill tank on the other) but it kind of doesn't make sense to me.

You would think you would want the fuge to fill off the drain line, so the copepods only have to go through the pressure of the return pump once on their way to the main tank. If that was a return line, they could be cycling indefinately in the sump/fuge loop.

That picture has 2 pipes going down to the tank to what looks like a return area, but I don't see a pump, then a branch going to the fuge. So, not really sure what is going on.

In my plumbing setup I have the fuge filling off the drain line, then draining via gravity to the sump. I'm no expert though, and haven't even turned this beast on yet, but you are welcome to check out pictures of my setup. You could use the same system (mostly) for an in sump fuge, you would just have the split off lower in the line and probably lose the hose barb. And instead of return lines from the fuge, you could just have it overflow over a baffle (marc from melevsreef likes to cut teeth in the baffle to contain snails, etc.)

Here are pics of my setup, there are a bunch of the plumbing, but you'll have to flip through them:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/AquariumConstruction#5423068424145993938

Sorry, but in the picture you posted, I can't figure out exactly what is going on.

rob