Planted tank sump design - need your feedback. :-)

[hotashes]

Thanks for that Zak 🙂 You're a star. I have also had some input on plantedtank.net - Swiss Tropicals have been brought to my attention, and their idea of just using foams - so I may try that!

The sumps would be for all the tanks dude ideally, especially the 22l really to increase water vol!

The co2 pump mixing idea is working well, the Dennerle Turbo is proving a great shout!

Cheers

Just a quick one, I have hard plumbed my sump and will be adding pressurised co2. I will need to use the ideas you have. So you mention the dennerle unit and also have a small reactor in the last chamber in the drawing. Is this what you will be switching to? Can I have links to both u it's please.


Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time,
Peace

 

[Something Fishy]

Sure Hot - we are both on both forums it seems about the same topic haha!

This is where I got the reactor / mixer

He is out of stock currently so you might have to ping him a message, they are £30 plus on other sites so I used pro shrimp for that reason! You could Google the name and find them more expensive elsewhere.

Pumpwise, something like this is perfect for that depending on your tank size and co2 rate.

As I said, you can tweak the input on the Dennerle mixer to suit your needs for more or less mixing to / flow rate.

Failing that if you wanted a no pump / quick fix, you could try one of these as I heard good things about them also but not tried.

 

[Something Fishy]

Have you sorted the injection too? I am using a SIP welding cannister with the co2art adapter and a solenoid, as it tends to last a little longer than the others. I would consider a large refillable cannister/fire extinguisher though.

 

[hotashes]

Have you sorted the injection too? I am using a SIP welding cannister with the co2art adapter and a solenoid, as it tends to last a little longer than the others. I would consider a large refillable cannister/fire extinguisher though.

Thanks for the input, when I finally start a log in sure it would be good to see you there my friend. I will keep those bits and bobs noted, as for the canister, I have 5kg extinguisher X 2. They are just out of date but for the price I guess it was a no brainier. Others have got the same and using them with no issues thus far. Unless the ones you get are decently priced *grin*

Thanks again, Ash


Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time,
Peace

 

[Something Fishy]

Thanks for the input, when I finally start a log in sure it would be good to see you there my friend. I will keep those bits and bobs noted, as for the canister, I have 5kg extinguisher X 2. They are just out of date but for the price I guess it was a no brainier. Others have got the same and using them with no issues thus far. Unless the ones you get are decently priced *grin*

Thanks again, Ash


Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time,
Peace

Sounds good Ash I’ll look out for your threads!

I spend about a tenner on each canister but they are 390g so no as large as an extinguisher!

 

[Something Fishy]

So here’s the sump guys just soaking the filter sponges (smells of acrylic!!) and here’s the first little nano tank this ones going on to increase volume and keep everything out of it! Any reason when a plastic version is used with a form of comb or grill that this overflow idea wouldn’t work? Trying to KISS still and see so many over complicated overflows for sumps.

 

[Something Fishy]

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acrylic-Cy...-Table-Flower-Stander-Road-Lead-/311754680805 One of these in essence

 

[hotashes]

What is the acrylic vase for?


Ashley..
Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time, Peace ️

 

[Something Fishy]

Sorry hotashes 🙂 The pictures I took up there show the glass in place currently in my tank, I wanted to use this acrylic vase for the overflow for the sump idea.

 

[hotashes]

Sorry hotashes 🙂 The pictures I took up there show the glass in place currently in my tank, I wanted to use this acrylic vase for the overflow for the sump idea.

Ok, thought you were going to use it to make a DIY reactor for CO2.


Ashley..
Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time, Peace ️

 

[Something Fishy]

Ok, thought you were going to use it to make a DIY reactor for CO2.


Ashley..
Aqua oak tanks 4'x2'x2' & 5'x2'x2' both freshwater set up on apex Neptune systems.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser Full Time, Peace ️

Ah sorry! Yeah could do really I can take a pic of the one I have running at tinge moment. Probably cheaper to buy the Dennerle one to be honest! I can’t see any reason this overflow wouldn’t work though for a sump - how are you doing the overflow?


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[Something Fishy]

Quick one guys - how do you prevent evaporation from the tank but ensure it happens in the sump? Something I’m not completely sure of with this Swiss Tropicals no baffle design?

 

[Chris Tinker]

@Zak Rafik just read all of this... what ever happened? @zozo do you know?

 

[zozo]

do you know?

No i don't.

 

[Chris Tinker]

No i don't.

Thought you might have seen it move somewhere else. Damn it. Its like reading a book and not knowing the last 50 pages have been torn out

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Sad to see this thread didn’t come to fruition, but I just did my first sump for my 40 Breeder using several of the materials mentioned in the thread. I’ll post pictures and explain shortly for anyone else considering a sump setup.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Ok so my tank is a 40 gallon breeder and I went with the Eshoppes Bean Animal overflow. The sump is a 20 gallon high that I have divided into three sections (drain, biomedia, return/CO2). The sections are divided simply by 2” thick poret foam. The first foam barrier is 30ppi and the next one is 20ppi. It does an excellent job of trapping debris and keeping my main tank clean. The return pump I’m using is a Jebao DCP 2500 that I currently run at 50% which would be around 350 gallons per hour if I’m not mistaken. There is plenty of flow in the tank and despite lots of negative reviews on jebao products it’s working excellent. In regards to my CO2 injection, I made venturi style reactor using a Rio180 pump that works great. It makes a really fine mist once the container starts to really fill with CO2. You will not see the micro bubbles unless you are face to the glass and looking for them, it works that well. I have the reactor sitting directly over my return pump so that when the CO2 finally escapes the reactor, it is immediately sucked into the pump and distributed to the tank. My only current gripe is the lack surface movement in the sump, each chamber is a little stagnant at the top and you can see the biofilm. Not the end of the world but I just don’t care for it. I may use a small power head to just get some movement, but that is the only downside to using the foam as baffles.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Spoke to Stephen at Swiss Tropicals about my concerns with lack of surface flow in the sump, this is what he had to say: “I would do nothing, it's not harming anything and it is also not blocking gas exchange or affecting filtration. It's common to see surface films and flocking detritus in sumps due to microbial activity.”

I guess I’ll leave it as is then, it makes sense since the cascading water from the overflow disturbs the water enough to provide gaseous exchange.

 

[Michael1212]

Interesting idea with the foam baffles Mr Shenanagins. I was reading that 20ppi foam is the equivalent of 840 microns. How effective is that as mechanical filtration? I would have presumed a lot of visible particles would escape to the display tank. I guess one advantage of the surface scum is that it would keep more c02 in.

 

[Something Fishy]

Similar to the one I did mate. It looks fine and will work well.

In the end the hassle of using a hangon overflow, noise of the sump slurping and the sump sucking all my shrimps and bits in, plus the need for a pump cut off when the sump level drops (I flooded a couple of times) ended up making me go back to an Eheim for a simple weekly clean.

I do hope this works for you though and I see no reason it won’t 🙂

I’ve got another hang on overflow and piping you’re welcome to if you want to pay the postage. Cost me about 60 quid on eBay from a reef seller.


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