Show me your sump!

[Curtie44]

I just bought a 40G breeder to replace the 29G I am currently using as my sump (it's way too small, skimmer barely fits, hardly any room for filter sock). I would like to see some of your setups before I silicone my baffles into my sump-to-be. I'm looking to see how you guys have plumbed your overflows to filter socks, baffle height, equipment placement etc. Let's see some pictures! Thanks.

[Lucky-rc]

Not sure if you can see much in my gallery or not?
My 310 has a 45 gal. sump. It is not a DIY this thing cost a butt load. it is called a "High Flow" sump. (no fuge)
It has a chamber about 17X24 and 18 inches deep. This is where I have my filter socks and tank drains. This use to have bio-balls in it now live rock. The baffle comesdown from the top and has a 3inch spaceing along the bottom.... Next... 3inches from this baffle is another one along the bottom. It only stands 3inches high. (it was probably the piece cut off the first one..?)
Thats it. The rest is all open for whatever you want. Mine has return lines just dumping in from u/v, po4, carbon, and skimmer.
My return pump and skimmer... My everything is external.
Hope this helps you?
Oh yes my sump is pushing 2,000 gph. plus right now (this is a little better than 1/2 it'a ability. NO micro bubble due to the filter socks...

Lucky

[The Professor]

Here's my set up, for my 75G.

[alten78]

Professor, that is way too pretty Here is my poor excuse of a sump, but it got me by for awhile, like you I will be changing setups but will be adding a 2nd tank for a seperate sump and fuge. Will be looking forward to other setups to get better ideas as well!

Don't mind the wires, got lazy after installing the rackmount ac switch...I better clean those up soon

[Curtie44]

I take it you have plenty of room under your tank for all your equipment? It's tough to see in your gallery. The 40G is about the largest I can fit under mine. I put my return in the middle section which I think I'm going to change with the new one. I think I'm going to go Skimmer-fuge-return. Both overflows to 1 sock in the skimmer section. I get horrible microbubbles with my current setup.

[Curtie44]

Holy crap professor...how do you keep that thing so clean?

Alten, what is the small pump in the bottom right of your sump going to?

[Lightsluvr]

Originally posted by alten78


Don't mind the wires, got lazy after installing the rackmount ac switch...I better clean those up soon

Are those your light ballasts under there?

LL

[AquamanE]

NO WAY Professor, does that actually run a reef, or is it a showroom model???

[Lucky-rc]

Originally posted by Curtie44
I take it you have plenty of room under your tank for all your equipment? It's tough to see in your gallery. The 40G is about the largest I can fit under mine. I put my return in the middle section which I think I'm going to change with the new one. I think I'm going to go Skimmer-fuge-return. Both overflows to 1 sock in the skimmer section. I get horrible microbubbles with my current setup.

me?...
yes, everything except the skimmer is under the tank. i will get a pic later in the week and if i can find this thread i will post it. if not i will add it to my gallery. when i first set my tank up it was fish only. thats why i dont have a fuge. and the little 3inchbaffle was there to hold a foam filter block. you can see it in the pic. at my gallery, but i now have changed my system to filter socks. so this baffle really does nothing anymore..

Lucky

[alten78]

the pump on the right is for the phosban reactor behind the one running carbon. Unfortunately yes those are my ballasts, they normally sit outside of the stand but this damn cold weather froze and busted a water pipe on the opposite side of the wall. Oddly enough the safest spot for them IS under the stand...for now

[The Professor]

Thank you for the kind words. This was the result of careful planning, and my obsessive compulsive disorder. This is actually an idea I had but did not really see to many times in action. The idea I think is great, a seperate refuge that can be totally isolated and manipulated if needed. The refuge simply gravity feeds back to the sump. All is not as calm as the picture may appear. Being an electrician I took a tremendous amount of pride in routing wires to a power panel that I built. They are all tucked away and zip tied. Sounds great huh? Thats what I thought until it was time to do maintenance on the pumps and had to undo the wiring to remove pumps. Also there is a lot of room under there, that is the benefit to having a brother who is a carpenter. Because I am so paranoid I had him over build the stand thus losing much needed head room, you would laugh if you saw me try to remove the protein skimmer. As pretty as it may look it does have its flaws. Due to my location in the states heat is not a tremendous concern so I do have a couple pumps under there. One for the skimmer, one to push the water into the refuge, one to power the carbon reactor, and one is the return for the main tank. Since the photo I eliminated the one for the carbon and fed that by doubling it up with the refuge pump. The lights are two 40 watt current retro pc kits, so I can simulate dusk to dawn on the refuge as well.

[NWhoric]

href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11823353#post11823353 target=_blank>Originally posted by The Professor
Here's my set up, for my 75G.

all i gotta say is BEAUTIFUL!! nice clean plumbing to. very nice job hope to have a nice clean setup like that when i get the time. what do u keep in the fug and what size is it

[Toddrtrex]

Here is my 30 sump for my 75


20 for 58


10 for 29

[alve]

This is mine before I put chaeto in the fuge. Two sumps, 10g filled with live rock gravity flowing into the fuge side of a 55g that has live rock and chaeto.

[corals b 4 bills]

I have one of those bow front Tank/Stands so space was limited I decided to buy a Oceanic Wet/Dry filter/sump and remove the bio balls. I cut a round hole in the egg create to hold the sock in place so far it's worked out very well, I don't have the greatest picture of it but this is it. (here's some others as well ).

[xenon]

[glxtrix]

here is my 55g under the 140g. I'm a true BB guy so no sand or rock down there, just extra water volume. Second pic is the newly upgraded self modded Octopus 200.

[Curtie44]

This is exactly what I was looking for....thanks guys!!! Since I will be starting from scratch with the 40 breeder, I can take what I learned from my first sump, add what I've seen here and hopefully have great result. One question though....How the heck do you guys keep those sumps so clean???

[DarthBaiter]

I had 40g sump. I made my baffles too toight and when they expended they cracked my sump... Good thing I was there when it cracked.
I got Andy at MRC to make me one a bit bigger one. I'll post shots when I get home.
Make sure the baffles have a little wiggle room.

[xenon]

Originally posted by Curtie44
This is exactly what I was looking for....thanks guys!!! Since I will be starting from scratch with the 40 breeder, I can take what I learned from my first sump, add what I've seen here and hopefully have great result. One question though....How the heck do you guys keep those sumps so clean???

I use a Kent scraper and siphon out all the detritus everytime I do a water change.

[The Professor]

All my water changes are done through my sump. I vacuum out all the debris followed by a lot of wiping, scrubbing, and scraping.

[NWhoric]

Originally posted by DarthBaiter
I had 40g sump. I made my baffles too toight and when they expended they cracked my sump... Good thing I was there when it cracked.
I got Andy at MRC to make me one a bit bigger one. I'll post shots when I get home.
Make sure the baffles have a little wiggle room.

what expanded? little confused about what u mean. were u using acrylic?

[SanFranTodd]

Originally posted by xenon

I'm very interested in your return piping - are you running some kind of durso into the sump? What are you using in the overflow?

[erendon]

Here is mine. I tried to keep it simple but affective.

[stangreef]

those put mine to shame...