Building Sump System for 140G

D

Dragonet

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 19, 2009
58
0
0
Kingston ON.
#1
I wanted to go with a sump system for my new 140G tank, it is drilled in both corners and I have the left hole routed over to the right so that there is one entrance to the sump. I debated buying a sump but I found that they are ridiculously expensive, so I decided to build my own. I have a basic concept of what I want in terms of compartments but what confuses me are measurements for these compartments in terms of how large each should be.
What I would like to have is 1 compartment for filter media, 1 for heaters, protein skimmer, and U.V. sterilizer, 1 for a refugium, and 1 small one just for the return pump.
The space I have to work with is
18'' wide
18'' tall
40'' long


What I would like help with are the measurements for the compartments how many '' long will I need for filter media, how many'' long will I need for protein skimmer ect., how many '' will I need for my refugium.
What also confuses me are bubble traps and how many I should have and how tall they should be from the bottom.

If anyone can help me that would be great.
Thankyou.
Liam
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#2
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
0
ft. lauderdale
#2
you dont need seperate compartment for each of those you mentioned.... on my current setup i have return,heater and phos reactor in one section, the skimmer in one section and the fuge in one section... the sump is a 55g tank and i made 3 sections.... my 125g has 2 seperat drains. one goes to the skimmer section, and the other goes to the fuge... the return is in the middle so its like this:
->FUGE->RETURN<-SKIMMER<-
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#3
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
0
ft. lauderdale
#3
btw on the new build im working on im doing away with the fuge and going with a frag tank section! :p

the bubble traps you are talking about are called baffles... my current setup ive got 3 baffles... the center one is 1" from the bottom and the other 2 are on the bottom with 1" spacing between them... as far as how big each section that all depends on the size skimmer ect...
 

Last edited:
D

Dragonet

Medium Fish
#4
Mar 19, 2009
58
0
0
Kingston ON.
#4
TRe said:
btw on the new build im working on im doing away with the fuge and going with a frag tank section! :p

the bubble traps you are talking about are called baffles... my current setup ive got 3 baffles... the center one is 1" from the bottom and the other 2 are on the bottom with 1" spacing between them... as far as how big each section that all depends on the size skimmer ect...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help and for the part of the baffle that starts at the bottom how tall should it be?
 

D

Dragonet

Medium Fish
#6
Mar 19, 2009
58
0
0
Kingston ON.
#6
TRe said:
you have to decide where you want your water level to be... the water is going to come to the top of the first baffle
Click to expand...
Ive been told also to make a safe guard with the baffles so that the sump wont overflow in the event of a power failure but could this not be done with the guards in front of the corner overflows or simply just by monitoring the water level so that it is impossible to happen.
 

C

CRACKERMAN

Medium Fish
#7
Mar 30, 2009
82
0
0
#7
check the speed of inlit and outlit of pumps
+
when done makin all this
turn of the power to check where your water meets at the end
then decide how much water you need in the tank+your sump
it depends on how high your tank is from your sump also
 

E

epond83

Large Fish
#8
Mar 11, 2007
483
0
0
#8
Your return section is where water hieght will fluctuate because the other sections will have baffels. So that section should be able to lower enough from evaporation without running your pump dry. Also you can do a automatic water top off system which cuts down on this.
 

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