Pumping water from aquarium to sump without a bulkhead?

[ludnix]

I have a 33gallon cube shaped aquarium and I'm interested in adding a sump to it. Currently there are not any fish in the aquarium as I'm letting it cycle for a while but I would like to increase the amount the biological filtration and amount of water in the tank by adding a sump.

I don't however want to cut into my aquarium to install a bulkhead leading to the sump, does anyone know of a way to pump water from the aquarium to the sump and then pump it back in? I imagine I'd just need some sort of back-pack pump on the aquarium and then a pump in the sump as well. Any thoughts?

 

[TheFool]

Adding a sump is an excellent idea, but it is near impossible to pump in and pump out and keep the volumes matched. That's why it's easier to drill a hole and let rgavity sort it out one, it keep in balance automatically. As you don't want to drill, you'll need to attach one of the siphon powered overflow boxes that you can either buy or make yourself.
By the way a straight syphon and pump back doesn't work wither, again it's tough to get volumes matched up, and you can never, ever,ever turn off the power without loads of messing around to getit going again.

It might not seem it now, but drilling a hole is the easiest way to do this, by a mile

 

[Lorna]

here is a great site on sumps and different types of set up, I highly recommend this......a must read

Melevsreef.com | Acrylic Sumps & Refugiums

 

[TRe]

all you need is a hob overflow box

 

[ludnix]

Thanks for the replies, after looking at this page I see it can be done.

Melevsreef.com - Install a Sump in an Existing Setup

Can anyone explain a little more on how the back-pack works? I see it has a container inside the tank and outside, but is the u-shaped tube just siphoning the water from the inner tank into the outer?

 

[Lorna]

yes it siphons the water up and over into the box on the outside of the tank. The overflow box ensures that once the water level drops below a certain level the siphon stops. The key with a siphon style overflow is you want to make sure that you leave enough room in your sump for back siphon from the overflow and the pump outlet in the case of a power failure. Otherwise you are going to have an overflow of your sump.

 

[ludnix]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the physics of the siphon, but after the siphon stops, it starts itself up after the water level raises to a point where the overflow begins to be filled again?

 

[CoolWaters]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the physics of the siphon, but after the siphon stops, it starts itself up after the water level raises to a point where the overflow begins to be filled again?

just think of it as equilibrium where the water level always wants to be equal. like if one side is too low the side that has the most water gets moved to the other side.

thats way one side has to be lower at all times for the water to get siphoned out.

its pretty simple if u think about it. just think gravity and the absents of air.