Sump suggestions needed

[TMSB805]

Looking for suggestions/inputs on building a sump for a 220(not drilled). I've never used a sump before, I've been a canister guy every since I've been in the hobby. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Andrew]

Why do a sump? If your tank is not drilled it's a major pain... Couple FX5s will do nicely.

Cue Matt for his dump filter suggestion 5. 4. 3. 2....

 

[dogofwar]

Amen - or run the return from the FX5 into one

Matt

Why do a sump? If your tank is not drilled it's a major pain... Couple FX5s will do nicely.

Cue Matt for his dump filter suggestion 5. 4. 3. 2....

 

[jonclark96]

Zach, I'll echo Andrew's advice on this one. I thought about doing a sump on my 180, but it too is not drilled and the thought of dumping gallons and gallons of water on the floor when the overflow failed was something I wasn't okay with. FX5's aren't as expensive as they once were.

 

[Tony]

+1 to these guys suggestions.

Had a non-drilled saltwater tank with a sump about 10 years ago. Despite how careful I was, I would regularly overflow the tank. Never ever ever ever again will I do that.

 

[Tony]

If you're set on doing a sump though, check out Charlie's old thread. I did my sump the same way, only with a larger single-sump and a drilled tank, so I didn't have to mess with the over-the-side intake.

http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3621&highlight=DIY+sump

Works great and including the used MAG pump, costs me about $100 to build.

 

[TMSB805]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm really looking at a cost comparison at this point. Not a big fan of the FX5 unless i can get it for dirt cheap. If i go with a canister it'll have to be a 2260 or 2262 and that's about $400 new. I really not ready to spend that kind of money again on another filter.

The 220 will be set up in my garage. Although flooding of the sump or overflow is never a good thing, i wont be that bad of a cleanup in the garage. Isn't there a way to setup your sump so that in case of loss of power they wont flood?

 

[dogofwar]

If it's in your garage, I'd go dump filter all the way.

I've been contemplating replacing the FX5 running the dump on my 180g SA community with the pump I got from you last meeting. And adding another 18g Rubbermaid dump module

If you want it to look nice, go to the Container store and find a nice looking storage container.

Matt

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm really looking at a cost comparison at this point. Not a big fan of the FX5 unless i can get it for dirt cheap. If i go with a canister it'll have to be a 2260 or 2262 and that's about $400 new. I really not ready to spend that kind of money again on another filter.

The 220 will be set up in my garage. Although flooding of the sump or overflow is never a good thing, i wont be that bad of a cleanup in the garage. Isn't there a way to setup your sump so that in case of loss of power they wont flood?

 

[Andrew]

Actually, I'm with Matt on this one. If you can build a dump filter above the water level of the tank, it will be the cheap, easy way to go. only significant cost will be the pump.

 

[ezrk]

+1 to these guys suggestions.

Had a non-drilled saltwater tank with a sump about 10 years ago. Despite how careful I was, I would regularly overflow the tank. Never ever ever ever again will I do that.

We have two drilled tanks with sumps, but we are paranoid enough about water overflowing that we have cut-offs (from auto top off .com) that will sense water and turn our return pumps off.

I would certainly do this if I was doing a sump on a non-drilled tank. They are very effective as I inadvertently found out...I had the back plastic guard attached to the glass that had gotten pushed out of the way a little bit leaving a tiny open space at the back of the tank. When feeding the Tropheus one of them flipped up enough water to push some through that gap and trigger the cut-off. I was very confused when the pump turned itself off in the middle of feeding the fish...

The other thing I would give strong consideration to doing (I am likely to do this when I move in the next couple of months) is waterproofing the insideof the stand. We had a minor flood in the derecho last year when the power went out and we found out that our sump overflows/weirs were no longer water tight so the tank drained down to the heaight of hte lowest stand-pipe. Fortunately not too low...but enough that a gallon or so of water went over the top of one sump. we now have overflow alarms inside the sump as well.

I really can't emphasize enough the importance of water alarms. Each of our tanks has like 3 plus the pump cutoff, plus another 6 foot long sensor for another alarm on the floor behind the tanks "just in case."

 

[ezrk]

Oh and on balance I probably wouldn't do sumps again. It is not that I dislike them per se, though they are finicky. The main reason is that sumps are not very fry friendly. The fry really, really like to hop into the weir and then either get sucked down into the sump and killed which is sad or after we put a guard on the standpipe they like to hang out there and mock you.

We have poret foam guarding the overflow itself which is not foolproof...and have a reasonable system for getting them out now (which involves a 300cc syringe pump, vinyl tubing and an inspection camera...).

 

[TMSB805]

Matt please elaborate on this dump filter you speak of. By the way i plan on making this an all Uruguay tank.

Ethan great info Sir. Setting up emergency shutoffs and alarms would be a must.

 

[chris_todd]

Matt please elaborate on this dump filter you speak of. By the way i plan on making this an all Uruguay tank.

Ethan great info Sir. Setting up emergency shutoffs and alarms would be a must.

I built one a few years ago, and documented it on my website:
http://www.christophertodd.com/?page_id=1251

I no longer run it on that tank (too noisy and ugly for a living room), but it worked very well. Cheap, easy to maintain, and highly effective.


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[TMSB805]

so pretty much you pump water up to a container above your aquarium and gravity takes care of the rest?

 

[jonclark96]

so pretty much you pump water up to a container above your aquarium and gravity takes care of the rest?

That's the basic theory. Where in a sump you pump water back to the tanks, a dump filter pumps water up to the filter box. Just as effective as a sump, but is usually unsightly and a bit noisy as the water returns to the tank.


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[TMSB805]

Does seem pretty effective but unsightly is the key word. Even though it'll be in the garage i'd really hate to look at everytime i go out there..lol. I may end up just pulling off the 2260 from the 300 and using that until i can make a decision. The 300 will still have the 2262

Well that's an idea....i'll probably be fine if i do that and add an AC110 to the 220 and 300..saves me some $$$ until i can find another 2262 or a good deal on a FX5. Thoughts?

 

[ezrk]

If you go the sump route think a LOT about noise. You can get them pretty quiet, very quiet in fact, but it is not simple to do. Certainly I would do a Herbie or Bean Animal style overflow and you probably need a better than average return pump. We also added extra sound-proofing to our stands. Most people that come over are surprised at how quiet the sumps are...but not easy not necessarily cheap.

 

[dogofwar]

That's it. Chris T's has a lot more tubing and stuff than mine. It's really no more noisy than a sump, especially if you keep the water level in the tank filled.

I've seen folks build nice-looking ones using nicer looking containers than rubbermaids. I use a clear rubbermaid for mine because it's easy to see what's going on and I had one with a lid that buckles closed.

The main advantage (other than massive bio capacity / flexibility of a sump) is that you get nearly 100% of the power of your pump and that it's super easy to clean.

The top layer of mine (on top of the bio material: Poret pads and bio balls) is a basket full of fluff for mechanical filtration...which I can clean and replace in less than a minute (and do often).

An canister on the other hand...

Matt

so pretty much you pump water up to a container above your aquarium and gravity takes care of the rest?

 

[dogofwar]

Awesome plan for it - in a big tank you can do a really impressive display. Felipe has a 6 foot (I think) "best of" tank in his kitchen / dining room - mostly males of his favorite Gymnogeos, chanchitos and everything else from all over Uruguay.

Matt

Matt please elaborate on this dump filter you speak of. By the way i plan on making this an all Uruguay tank.

Ethan great info Sir. Setting up emergency shutoffs and alarms would be a must.