The Fish Room (Sump Filters)
Hi Rob,
I dont use a sump system myself, but I see difficulties using such a small sump.
What would happen on start up, could the sump run dry initially with such a powerful pump, until all the pipes are full?
What would happen if the pump stopped. Could it flood?
I have spoken to a few lfs who have banks of 3 like you propose and all of them have a sump the same(or larger) capacity as one of the tanks,at the bottom.
You could even have a vegetable filter ( floating plants) in part of the larger sump if it was lit.(I use duckweed and hornwort in my zebra tank to remove some of the nitrates and have to remove loads of duckweed ,weekly as it multiplies)
Regards,
Des
I dont use a sump system myself, but I see difficulties using such a small sump.
What would happen on start up, could the sump run dry initially with such a powerful pump, until all the pipes are full?
What would happen if the pump stopped. Could it flood?
I have spoken to a few lfs who have banks of 3 like you propose and all of them have a sump the same(or larger) capacity as one of the tanks,at the bottom.
You could even have a vegetable filter ( floating plants) in part of the larger sump if it was lit.(I use duckweed and hornwort in my zebra tank to remove some of the nitrates and have to remove loads of duckweed ,weekly as it multiplies)
Regards,
Des
Hi Everyone
Rob: I'm sure you've probably finished the set up for your sump, but I thought I'd contribute my part to this thread too as it's a great project and I had a ball doing mine.
Here are a few pics of the sump I made for my 90G planted: (sorry if they're too big/too many, I tried to cut them down)
This is the drip tray where the water from the overflow in the tank enters the sump.
From the drip tray water flows through a bunch of bio balls and into the sump proper. Here's a front on view.
This is to the right of the sump. The bottom line is the pump intake, connected via a bulkhead, the top line is a return line straight to the sump so that I can turn down the flow rate without putting too much back pressure on the pump. The vertical is the return line to the tank, connected to a spray bar.
And this is the whole thing, tank and all.
Val
Rob: I'm sure you've probably finished the set up for your sump, but I thought I'd contribute my part to this thread too as it's a great project and I had a ball doing mine.
Here are a few pics of the sump I made for my 90G planted: (sorry if they're too big/too many, I tried to cut them down)
This is the drip tray where the water from the overflow in the tank enters the sump.
From the drip tray water flows through a bunch of bio balls and into the sump proper. Here's a front on view.
This is to the right of the sump. The bottom line is the pump intake, connected via a bulkhead, the top line is a return line straight to the sump so that I can turn down the flow rate without putting too much back pressure on the pump. The vertical is the return line to the tank, connected to a spray bar.
And this is the whole thing, tank and all.
Val
Last edited by valhallan on Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers for that Val.
I have edited your post to show the photo's. If you press the [img] button before you type in the url of the photo, and then press it again once you have completed the url, it will post the pics.
Very impressive set-up, what sort of flow rate do you haveon the sump?
Rob
I have edited your post to show the photo's. If you press the [img] button before you type in the url of the photo, and then press it again once you have completed the url, it will post the pics.
Very impressive set-up, what sort of flow rate do you haveon the sump?
Rob
The perfect white lie..."Of course I didn't pay that much for the fish honey"
Thanks Rob,
I was using the [ i m g ] [ / i m g ] tags, and when that didn't work I also tried using the button like you described, but I still couldn't see the pictures. I still can't see them now. Are they showing for you guys?
That sump is running between 600-700gph, so not really terribly high flow rate, and I do tend to back it off as the plants get high enough to hit the stream from the spray bar.
Val
I was using the [ i m g ] [ / i m g ] tags, and when that didn't work I also tried using the button like you described, but I still couldn't see the pictures. I still can't see them now. Are they showing for you guys?
That sump is running between 600-700gph, so not really terribly high flow rate, and I do tend to back it off as the plants get high enough to hit the stream from the spray bar.
Val