Sump design

[Krazykarl]

Ok guys I'm trying to plan out my design for me sump for the 135 gallon. As u know it's cycling. Eventually my 55 will become my sump. I have a 1920 gph submersible pump that I'm going to be running as my one and only pump for the return, reactor, and skimmer. It's gonna take some planning and thought process but I think I can do it. Can anyone tell me what size tubing to use, what kind of tubing, glue, etc... I wanna make it so I can detatch all my equipment if needed for cleaning. As for the sump how should I lay it out. I do not wanna make baffles with glass or a acrylic. Instead I was thinking of making removable eggcrate inserts that would allow water to pass through rather effortlessly but would still act as a barrier from rocks. My prob is that I don't plan on removing the sand in the 55 and keeping it undisturbed as to recreate a dsb in the sump. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[pulpfiction1]

myself i used schedule 40 pvc plumbing with gate valves to create a manifold,im using a mag18 pump with lots to run other appliances

 

[Cal_stir]

the minimum size for the piping would be the outlet size of the pump
use as few elbows as possible
use tru unions for disconnects
build a header to tap off for accessories
hose fittings have slightly less flow than pipe fittings
pvc glue and primer(DON'T USE NEAR YOUR TANK, if you can smell it near your tank, you're too close)
teflon tape(NO PIPE DOPE)


sump needs a bubble trap
wide spaces in bubble trap to reduce water velocity thru the trap is best
don't make return pump section too small
2 sections divided by bubble trap works well
don't put a DSB in the sump (big pain)
pile rock in skimmer compartment (rock stays put, don't need eggcrate)
be sure to calculate drain back for power outage when setting water level in sump
Berlin style if you don't want bubbles in tank

 

[pulpfiction1]

blah blah blah,been using pvc,with glue,with elbows for years,we use it on drinking water fixtures,wait for it to cure before using  WITH NO ILL EFFECT

 

[Blob-79]

I had no choice but to glue some pvc under and behind my tank with it already running, I accidently droped a bit of glue in the sump, in a panic I shut off the return pump as soon as I could, but figured if any chemicals were in the water, it was already too late. so I studied all my corals for the next hour or so. Didnt see any problems, so I turned on my return pump again. its been 4 days and still see no sign of problems. I actually found the drop in the sump yesterday, it was cured to a piece of tubing. So in conclusion no need to worry about smelling the glue near your tank.

 

[pulpfiction1]

it does solidify on contact with water but there might be trace chemicals for a brief time,we use this stuff for drinking water for human consumption,only thing i believe is dont restrict the intake of the pump

 

[Cal_stir]

blah blah blah, have you ever read whats in it, i wouldn't want to expose my system to it, and it can't hurt if you don't

 

[Blob-79]

blah blah blah, have you ever read whats in it, i wouldn't want to expose my system to it, and it can't hurt if you don't

lol I totally agree. If possibly keep it away from you system. I just wanted to relay my experience.  If someone needs to do something to their system, I feel it would be misinformation to say they should drain their tank before gluing anything.

also, yes ingredients are nice long words however first aid treatment is all "splash with water" or upon ingestion, "drink water to dilute" so it cant be too bad. Nothing worse then is dumped into the ocean on a daily basis

 

[Cal_stir]

i'm not saying drain your system, but if your building somethig with a bunch of joints , do as much as you can away from your system and turn off your skimmer if gluing near your system

 

[pulpfiction1]

not trying to be disrespectfull but.......the glue once cured and this dont take long but should be 24hrs is perfectly safe,have never had an issue and ive had to use it in situations where is didnt get 24 hr drying time,have never lost some much as a plant ,this product is safe to use whatever  ingredients are listed,just let it cure,i wouldnt ingest GFO or mix up a glass of kalk or calcium and mag to drink either

 

[Cal_stir]

still not going to expose my system to it unless it is absolutely necessary

 

[Blob-79]

i'm not saying drain your system, but if your building somethig with a bunch of joints , do as much as you can away from your system and turn off your skimmer if gluing near your system

I agree. Its just on a forum such as this, there are soo many personal perspectives on things. People read things different ways. Its hard to get everything just from some lines of text. I feel we need to be carefull how we word things, not construing our own beliefs for actual facts. We may prefere to adhear to your advise, as it is good advise, however, some may also decide not to. risk, possibly they might be taking a risk, as I did, as I did not know how safe it actually was. but in the end, I had no ill effect after literally dropping some wet glue into my sump. I have many sps in my tank, some lps and a few softies.  There is alot...ALOT of misinformation on the internet, I just really dont want this site to become one of such sites.

 

[Krazykarl]

i don't want to go all crazy with this build. and i just realized that i cannot use this new pump on my protein skimmer, as the cc skimmer uses an airline that feeds into the pump to combine water and air as it enters the skimmer. this pump doesn't have the same nipple on the end of it so im clueless as to how i would use this huge pump for it. therefore i will be using the 1920 gph pump as a return, obviously dialed down quite a bit but i still aim to turn the tank over 10 times. if i take into account the 135 display and 55 sump, im 190 gallons of water which at 10 times im right now so hopefully it won't blast my livestock around the tank lol.

 

[shayneh]

whay not use it as a closed loop pump and loose any nasty powerheads in the tank. Then you could use a 700-900gph for the sump return. Don't use 90's if you can avoid them they add a fair amount of restriction to your water flow. If you can also go a size larger than the diameter of your outlet. The added diameter creates a cushion of water that reduces friction within the pipe therebye making your pump work more efficiently. Ideally if you can get spaflex tubing you should be able to eliminate many elbows and create a nice radius to where you want to get. Use true unions for connections so you can disassemble and clean/repair any components of the system.

 

[Krazykarl]

What is a closed loop system? And what do you mean by don't use 90s?

 

[reeffreak]

by 90s it means 90 degree elbows on your plumbing closed loop type it google , and adding a sump after your tank has been cycling will obviously make your cycle that much longer , just wondering  why woldnt you have waited to set it all up at once just seems to be much less of a pain in the ass . and for the idea on using eggcrate instead of baffles really defeats the purpose of putting anything in there baffles are used to reduce micro bubble that show up in your sump from your drain before they make it back into the display.

 

[Blob-79]

he means avoid as many 90 degree bends in your tubing.

that is alot of flow to run thru a sump. If your set in your idea to run this monster pump in your sump, you may want to partially drain into your return baffle, so you dont have all that flow running thru your sump.

 

[Krazykarl]

I didn't set up all at once because I'm using the 55 gallon that is currently ky display right now as my future sump. I'm kinda stuck here. I'm letting the 135 cycle before I begin the breakdown of the 55. I want the 135 to cycle so ibdont intro all my livestock to high ammonia levels Nd whT not. I know once I attatch the sump with the old water and run the pump it will mix and cycle again but it won't be as bad as a new build. Thi is my only option as i do not have a 55 gal just Sittin around. And for the baffles I hadn't planned on removing all the water out of the 55 therefore not being able to silicone baffles in place. I dunno just looking for alterior motives I gueSs

 

[Blob-79]

you will probally be doing ok when you do the changover, when i set up my 75, i didnt give it anytime to cycle. I replaced all substrate, other then my remote DSB.

However I really recomend after changing over your livestock and liverock, drain out your 55 and put baffles in, if you dont your going to have issues with stuff like macro algae getting to your pump, possibly micro bubbles, junk like that. Its just with a big project like yours, you dont want to do anything your going to regret in the future. plan it out to a T and think about how it will run, and how easy it will be to maintain.

Honestly you may be better off finding a cheep tank, and making it into a sump, then when you tear down your 55 you can sell it.

 

[fishit]

there is a 55 gal on kijiji for 50 $