okay i have kept fish for quite a while, but i have never had the option to use a sump filter. with my new 212 gallon tank, i think its going to be mandatory.

since i have nothing here but a tank and stand, my options are completly open. for starters the tank is drilled twice on each end at the bottom of the overflows. is that for a down line and a return??? i dont know! the guy was telling me it was a custom built show tank designed to be looked at from all sides. so im thinking that one of the holes is for a return line from the pump. and the other is to drain back into the sump. i dont know really.



okay as far as the stand goes the biggest opening i have to work with is 24" tall and 20" wide. that is coming in thru any one of the 8 doors on it. the largest opening in the top of the stand is 21x19". there is no way i can see me getting my 55 gallon tank into this thing and using that for the sump, im at a loss now, that was the cornerstone in my plan.



i keep thinking im going to be stuck with some canister filters with stuff im going to have to replace every time i clean it and thats the last thing i want.


im open to any suggestions or ideas here guys. i dont know where to start now.

Ok

1. You are right in your thoughts about the holes in the bottom of the wiers - one is for the inlet and the other is the outlet. For BOTH make sure to plumb them up correctly. For the return you want it to be pumped up and over the wier wall and SLIGHTLY below water level (if you have too much it will drain too much water back into your sump when you lose power!). For the inlet plumb it in a similar way so that the water enters through a bend which is just BELOW the wier wall. This will minimize the "gurgling" noise of water rushing down the deep wier walls (and will also maximize the amount of water your aquarium holds as the whole wier is not wasted space).

2. Using your existing tank - will the tank fit in if it wasnt for the supports? If so consider temporarily removing them and putting them sump in. Another alternative that I had to do was to remove the side panelling.

If there is no way it will fit in - then consider buying another tank and setting up your own. You can pick up second hand aquariums cheap - especially if you get one that is badly scratched etc (doesnt really matter what it looks like). You can then design it yourself (and make it as simple or elaborate as you want.)

Happy to answer any other questions on how I have done my systems.

as far as like what goes inside that sump tank is my main questions... the plumbing part i know i can do lol... flow control??? the pump itself??? media? baffles??? compartments??? its all new to me.

as far as like what goes inside that sump tank is my main questions... the plumbing part i know i can do lol... flow control??? the pump itself??? media? baffles??? compartments??? its all new to me.


First some explanation of basic terms:

- Media: The things which you put in the sump for either physical, chemical or biological filtration. Physical filtration gets rid of the big bits of "dirt", chemical gets rid of any harmful additives in the water, biological (arguably the most important) is what coverts the ammonia that your fish produce to nitrates.

- Baffles: The sheets of perspex/ glass that separate the container into separate compartments. These are generally placed either top (water forced to flow from one compartment under the baffle into another compartment) or bottom (water forced to flow over the top). The reason why baffles are often used in sumps is to force water to move through all the media as efficiently as possible - ie water flows in the bottom of a compartment full of media, it then has to flow through all the media to go over the top of the next baffle.

- Flow control: refers to either where you want the water to flow (ie the reasons behind baffles I have already explained) or the Rate of flow (ie the speed at which the water is moving).

The Setup can be as simple or as complex as you wish. However it is important that you think it through, and design it on paper, before starting.

The most simple of sumps is literally just an open container with media and a return pump. Water flows from your wier into the sump, goes through media, and then gets pumped back into your display by your return pump. All the other stuff (baffles compartments etc) is just to maximise the amount of things the water has to go through to make sure that it is properly filtered before being returned.

As for the return pump itself - you will need to choose based on the size of your tank and the size of your plumbin. My personal opinion os for dirty fish such as O's you want the pump to be as powerful as your plumbing will allow. REMEMBER too large a pump and your tank will overflow (plumbing from display to sump will not cope and display will overflow)

My current setup:

My (admittedly large) sump is setup as follows:

- Chamber 1 (Physical and Biological Filtration):

Spinner distributes water over "wool" as a filter to pull out any large particles. (The wool is actually what you buy from fabric shops to stuff pillows/ cushions etc with).

The water (less any large particles) then goes through 500 bioballs, and 20 litres of filter floss

Water then flows UNDER first baffle into chamber through (wire screen to prevent media going through)

- Chamber 2 (Nitrate filtration)

Refugioum setup with lots of plants (deep sand substrate to promote anerobic bacteria). SOme heaters in this chamber

There is a half baffle in this chamber to promote circulation.

Water then flows UNDER next baffle into next chamber

- Chamber 3 (Chemical Filtration)

This chamber the water firt goes through a series of sponges (to get rid of anything coming our of sump) and then through various chemical filtration stages - ie carbon etc. I also put heaters in this chamber

Water flows OVER the next baffle into the next chamber

- Chamber 4 (Return + heaters)


For media there are heaps of choices available - you can buy expensive media such as special porus rock or bioballs(I have some of this), but then stainless steel pot scrubbers, dish scrapers etc all have large surface area and are just as good (my brother uses this sort of media in his sump and works the same as mine).


Keep asking specific questions and I will try to help!

hey Win, just one thing you should know, if you do not have pin hole
at the down flow hose, there is a danger of over flowing in your sump
tank once there is power outage...

is spinner nessisary? couldnt a T bar thats drilled do the same thing?

yes it is. but some people forget to install that and they get mad with the
sump when they get flooded during power failure...

a flood is the last thing i need.

I used to have a tbar - does a similar job, but not as good as a spinner at evenly distributing the water. The other option is simply a speader box (a solid internal box with little holes drilled in the base, big enough so that 1 inch of water sits in the speader to ensure even distribution through all holes)

As for the hole - with a wier this only needs to go in the hose that is returning water to your display from your sump. For mine I drilled a hole in a plumbing fitting and attached 4mm "spaghetti" tubing. I left the tubing long enough so that water does not get pumped out of it, and it is enough to stop any syphoning when I turn off the power.

lol thanks for your detailed description but im feeling like a complete noob here... i need a schematic or pictures. i can reproduce it if i can see it.

LOL, Internet was down Yesterday, but GoobS helped you out a long way.
He's completely right about getting a cheap/ free tank with scratches to use as a sump.
The plumbing is the hardest part, I think.
But that's not even hard.
You can silone some cut glass plates into the aquarium, to make your compartments.
I filled my sump with loads of porous stone and lava stones.



i added some ceramic rings and some green foam pieces.
I put a conector at the bottom of the overflow and attached a huge hose with a hose clamp, the outlet end above the first compartment.That's the only plumbing on that end.
On top of that compartment you see a glassframe That's build to minimize splatter and is filled with 1" foamcubes.
I filled my overflow with blue filterwool, topped it of with a green foam slab, and got some white cottonwool on top of that.The cottonwool will keep most dirt out of your filter and changing the white wool is the only filtermaintenance I do every week!

This is the Central heater pump I use, heavy duty!!


For the plumbing:

You don't see the pump in the pic, but it behind the soundproof box for my airaetor.
1 end of the tubing is in the last compartment, attached to the pump.
On the other side the tubing goes through the dry-chamber at the other side.
I got valves and a short cuircuit tube but you don't need those.
Man, this is becoming one long post.lol
Let me know if you uderstand my system!

im seeing different height baffles, but your water level is over the top of all of them lol... kinda defeats the point of having them doesnt it? and whats the crazy fitting on the pipe coming out of the sump to teh pump?? a cleanout or what?