new 150 gallon read this

[roo]

i just got a new 150 gallon aquarium. i was speaking to a lfs and they told me the cheapest way to do the filtration whould be with a sump with live rock and a deep sand bed i have a 55 gallon sump to work with but i need to know what size HOB overflow i should use and what size pump i should use. tia

robb

 

[wayne]

Well assume you're going for the magic water turnover figure of 10 x tank volume at least, therefor you want water pumps shifting 1500 gallons per hour somewhere in your system. You may as get some of your 1500 gph into this. You could just bolt in a single , great big pump and get a bunch of it from here, but I have a feeling the water flow over the sand bed will be too high, and keep it too disturbed, plus the noise from the overflows will be appalling.
So assuming that you want 4 times an hour thro' the sump, of the sumps volume, you want I reckon a 200 or so would be ok.
I remember to take pump failure into account and drill an antisyphon hole into the return from the sump.
Any chance of getting the tank drilled - I wouldn't trust hang on overflows never to fail

 

[S.Reef]

For a 150 gallon aquarium go with a dual siphon 1600 gph overflow. Cpr makes a really high quality one. For a pump you will want one that matches the overflow. Mag driven pumps are very dependable. As Wayne mentioned the return flow of water might be a little to powerful for the sand bed. With some ingenuity you can rig a return tube around the tank with pvc to evenly destribute the water flow. This way you won't need powerheads.

Sam Reef

 

[roo]

this is how i plan on setting all of this up, if anyone else has any opions about what size overflow i should use i would greatly appreciate it, let me know how this all apppears

 

[phantomfe3]

your drawing looks good, i attached a drawing of what might be better, you dont have to use my drawing at all or anything but i added some things that might help out a little.

ok first of all, the green line water water coming in, it comes in into a small box filled with live rock rubble, there are a bunch of small holes in the side of the box so the water can flow over the live rock and out of the box, into the refugium, this way your water going into the refugium is forced pass the live rock, making the live rock more efficient in doing its job

next is the refugium, you may or may not need to put live rock in the refugium, depending what what your preference is, its all up to you.

next, instead of your barrier which original consisted of 1 wall, i put in 2 more walls, with the middle wall raised so the water will flow UNDER it, not over it, creating a 'bubble trap' is what its called, it keeps bubbles from entering the return pump area and going back into the show tank, so you wont have any bubbles going back into the show tank

hope this helps!

 

[wayne]

OK, more thoughts. I'm assuming you're goin to have live rock in the display, else you'll need a massive sump to store it all. But a 55 is pretty big. First of all I don't really like the idea of 1500 gallons an hour going through the sump. It's messy, noisy and not optimal for filtration at all. I would drop it through dual overflows into a first compartment. Put a skimmer in there. Then take it into a live rock rubble comaprtment , maybe, then overflow thro' a baffle into a sandbed compartment. Or jsut skip the live rock rubble, put it in the now larger sandbed. Then it will seed the sandbed with desirable lifeforms (far more efficiently than 'live' sand will do).
I don't think you want much more than a couple of hundred gallons going through this though. You need to do something else for the rest of your water movement
What's the local shop recommend?

 

[TygGer]

Originally posted by phantomfe3
your drawing looks good, i attached a drawing of what might be better, you dont have to use my drawing at all or anything but i added some things that might help out a little.

ok first of all, the green line water water coming in, it comes in into a small box filled with live rock rubble, there are a bunch of small holes in the side of the box so the water can flow over the live rock and out of the box, into the refugium, this way your water going into the refugium is forced pass the live rock, making the live rock more efficient in doing its job

next is the refugium, you may or may not need to put live rock in the refugium, depending what what your preference is, its all up to you.

next, instead of your barrier which original consisted of 1 wall, i put in 2 more walls, with the middle wall raised so the water will flow UNDER it, not over it, creating a 'bubble trap' is what its called, it keeps bubbles from entering the return pump area and going back into the show tank, so you wont have any bubbles going back into the show tank

hope this helps!

Regarding the raised barrier you drew, is water suppose to go over and under? Or just under?

And what's the purpose of putting the LR in a box? Couldn't it just be placed in another section divided off?

Thanks

 

[phantomfe3]

with the bubble trap, the water flows over the 1st barrier, under the 2nd barrier, and over the 3rd barrier. so to answer your question, it supposed to flow under the barrier only.

i guess if you wanted to put the LR in another section you could do that, but the purpose of putting live rock in the box is that the intake into the sump is in that box too, so the water is forced to pass over the live rock and through the little crevases and gaps between the pieces piled in there to optimise contact between the incoming water and the live rock

 

[wayne]

Roo - do you plan to use a skimmer at all?

Phantom - so where would you put a skimmer, or are you assuming none.. How much water flow would you think best?

 

[dbacksrat]

is a sump that complicated?

 

[wayne]

Depends what you want it to do. This isn't complicated, but you don't usually get the option to go back and change it without mucho hassle, so you try to get it right first time.

 

[phantomfe3]

Originally posted by wayne
Roo - do you plan to use a skimmer at all?

Phantom - so where would you put a skimmer, or are you assuming none.. How much water flow would you think best?

the sump drawing that i drew would be skimmerless. butim sure you could get away with putting the skimmer in the refugium part if you really wanted to.

 

[1979camaro]

here is a picture of a setup which i will be running (or at least pretty close)....it is simpler and allows for a skimmer...main reason i am going with the sump is to increase h2o volume and hide equipment...though i figure cant hurt to add some extra LR, though i may not...we will see

edit: i just drew this and it is late so if there is a mistake someone should really point it out and not assume im doing something new and exciting...lol...i realized i typed "hurt" as "heard" so obviously things arent going too well

 

[wayne]

No that looks normal, except people normally manage to squeeze some kind of 'extra ' filtration in there, be it a sand bed or LR or what. If you're using a 55 you should have the best part of a 3 foot long extra compartment in the middle to do things in.