Home project??

[yamahaguy06]

well with my new job, i am making a little bit of money. And I was wondering how hard it would be to make my own 10 gallon sump underneath my tank? And what this would do for me. Or would a fluval 304 do basicly the same purpose? what would go in a sump and would it be better? what is the BEST filtration sytem you can get?? thanks guys. let me know what you think.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

lot of water, live rock, macro-algaes, skimmer in the sump.
I have a 10g sump on a 55g and it's small...but so filled with caulerpa and chaetomorpha that i have 0 detectable nitrates.
There are super mega wet/dry systems and they look hot, but they just can't replace an easy setup of LR and algaes. I guess they're used to get rid of ammonia/nitrite because there's not enough LR or for overcrowded fish only setups that can handle some nitrates.

 

[wayne]

Making a sump is pretty straightforward though a 10 is going to be a bit cramped, and a bit small too.

The best filtration method is not so easy, and I wouldn't like to guess for you. I guess a first compartment of a skimmer, 2nd of macro algae or a deep sand and a 3rd where you have the return pump will do it for you. You just get a cheap or old tank,and glue in partitions - they're barely weight bearing, and don't have to be perfect. The only problem with that is that a US 10 is only 50 cms long (a UK 10 is 60), so you won't have much space to play with.

Plus you need to drill the tank or get an overflow (I know which I prefer, drilling)

 

[yamahaguy06]

well to drill would be out of the question, because my tank is already going, lol. but how does an overflow work? I am realy looking into this. And would it make a big difrence from the average fluval?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

your fluval is siphoning the same volume of water that it's returning, wich will not be possible with a sump.
You can't siphon a tank with a pump and try to return the same amount of water with another pump from the sump and expect this to work. It'll be unbalanced, and the return pump from the sump could not be as efficient as the other one in the tank because it's lower.
http://www.reefs.org/library/diy/img/overflow.gif
When your sump is filled and you start the return pump or powerhead, it'll add water in your tank. When the water in your tank reach the water line of your internal overflow box, it'll enter the box, fill it until the tubing siphon it.
But...there's air in the tubing, and the water will not be able to efficiently siphon it until you get rid if the air. That's when the small diameter vynil tubing can be helpful. The tubing is plugged into the air input of a powerhead, located close enough to the overflow box, and it'll siphon a little bit of air and water from the U-tube. this way, no more air jammed into the U-tube and continuous siphoning.
Note that you need some water in the external box to start the siphon, or no water will completely fill the U-tube.
Hope i'm not confusing you, it's 5 AM here and i'm sleepy.

 

[RockingCricket]

I made a small 10 gallon sump for my 90 gallon and it's working like a charm. I have my skimmer, Emperor 400 and heater in there. I didn't make it for any added filtration - just to house the filtration and hide it from view.
For about $12 I purchased a 10 gallon tank (from PetExtreme), 2 clear hard plastic drinking bottles, a length of 1 inch pvc tubing and several pvc elbow joints from Home Depot. The whole thing cost me about $25 and was really easy to make. I'm using my Fluval 404 to pump the water back up to the display, and I have to say it's struggling - but it is working. It doesn't like pumping water uphill and I'm not sure if the 303 will cope.

I used the directions at the following link to make the overflow.
http://www.tnreefer.com/overflow.shtml

 

[RockingCricket]

Here's the directions that go with Kahlua's image.
http://www.reefs.org/library/diy/diy_winner1.html

 

[Fishchaser]

for a sw tank is a sump essential or just a good thing to have??

 

[1979camaro]

not essential but definitely a good thing to have

 

[KahluaZzZ]

it's much much less trouble

 

[yamahaguy06]

I think my main question is. Is it worth it to reconstruct my set up? Can the fluval do the job? with skimmer and powerheads?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

overflow box can be tricky and might lead to "tons of water on the floor" .
I built my sump without the need to use an overflow. The sump is higher than my tank. The problem is : it can be ugly..
I only had to drill a 10 $ , 10g tank...pretty easy with a dremmel and if you fail...well you only lose 10 $. The sump can be made of plastic so it's easier to drill.
Except for the water flow, i dunno why you ask if your fluval is doing the job.
If it's filled with sponges, efhisubstrate or bio-max, you're just trapping organics so in a way, it's not doing the job. If it's empty, well it's just like a powerhead that uses more power.

 

[yamahaguy06]

well, right now it has carbin in it...and a small amount of foam. im thinking though if I clean and replace the faom(a lot) it wont harm anything. but there is definitly no meida or anything like that.

I think its working out. carbin-foam-protien skimmer-water flow

do you guys think that I can over replace the carbin and foam? like if I keep up on it and replace it a lot, even if its not been a month or whatever. it will pull to much bacteria out of my tank?? I think it sould be fine

 

[KahluaZzZ]

as long as the foam is cleaned often, you can keep it..but personally when i had foam i forgot the clean it regularly.
Carbon should be fine, but i don't think it would really do a big diff to change it if it's still good.

I've seen beautiful tanks without sumps so it's possible