Sump Advice

[strout]

Ok, I have found someone sort of local to build me a new acrylic sump out of 3/8" closed cell acrylic , he is just waiting for me to fax him the plans so that he can get me a quote on the price. LOL I need help with the plans. What I need is the height the divider panels in the sump need to be and the size of each chamber in the sump and your thoughts on how this sump will work and if I need to do something differant. I am planning on buying this skimmer

Octopus Extreme 350 Protein Skimmer - English

Foot print is 13"x 17" and needs to set in 8 to 10"s of water

The sump will have four chambers: left to right, skimmer section, return section, live rock chamber, refugium chamber. I was planning on putting a baffle chamber set up between the skimmer section and the return section. I have the room for a 52" long sump and I was thinking about making the sump around 22" tall. The man making the sump told me I could save a good amount of money if I just went with a 48" long sump as I could most likely get the sump made with one sheet of acrylic. Anyway, I don't know how tall to make the chamber walls for either the bubble trap or the chamber walls for the LR and refugium chambers. Anyway, I need some input and your thoughts on this plan.

 

[TRe]

first of let me say that is a great skimmer! i know a guy nearby that has a 350g tank with that same skimmer and its a beast! i dont think i would go through the touble of making a section for liverock and if 4" saves alot of money thats a no brainer! i have live rock in my skimmer section for the bubble trap you want it about 1" from the bottom and a couple inches higher than the water level... if the sump is 22" tall i would make the water level no higher than 18" ....how is the overflow setup? will there be 2 drains or 1?

 

[TRe]

my last sump was a 55g and was setup like this: FUGE-->RETURN<--SKIMMER
that was with 2 drains but if you have 1 you can always split it

 

[strout]

The tank will have two overflow drain pipes coming together under the tank then into the skimmer section then thru the bubble trap then into the return section of the sump. I haven't seen the skimmer that I want to buy, the one that you say is a beast, lol, but this is my concern. The skimmer link I posted says this skimmer uses three pumps to operate, does this mean it will have the skimmer and three external pumps attched to it feeding the skimmer? The skimmer that I now have has one pump feeding it an it is in a 34 inch long section of my current sump, but its not very deep 7 or 8 inches, and I can only put three or four small (softball size) pieces on live rock in that section of the sump.If the new skimmer has three pumps that dosn't leave hardly any room for live rock unless I make the skimmer section deep and place the live rock on top of the three pumps but then I might have to put the skimmer on a pedestal to get to the 8 to 10 inch operateing depth, and if so then I have to watch out for the bottom of the tank to be able to get the cup off to clean the skimmer. If I use the same 34 " in my new sump for the skimmer section plus the say 4 inches for the bubble trap bringing it to 38" that only leaves me with 10" left to make my return section plus the refugium if the sump were to be 48" long. I know I am probley figuring this wrong so where an I wrong .

 

[strout]

Well, I figured part of it out, the three pumps are ALOT smaller than the pump I have on my cheap skimmer.

 

[epond83]

For hight i would figure out how high your skimmer can be and still be able to do what you need to with it, then come up 8-10 inches from your base and that is the depth of your water.

Your return is where the effects of evaporation will take happen so size that based on how much evaporation you think you will have between top off's. If you are having a auto top of then this area can be smaller.

Seems to me i would size the return and fuge and leave the rest for the skimmer and LR area (within reason)

 

[strout]

As I posted above I found someone local ( bout 50 miles away) that has an acrylic shop and is willing to build a sump for me, I don't know the price yet. But, I have been having second thoughts. Melevsreef.com - Welcome! I sent mel, an email to see if he would be willing to build my sump for me. He knows what he is doing, builds a great sump, and is also a reefer, no down side. We will see if he is willing to do the job for me. I have to pay a shipping cost but I know the sump will be first class made. We will see what he says.

 

[TRe]

that would be great! he's definitly a guru in the hobby IMO anyways lol.... personally id save the $ and make one using an old glass tank or something

 

[unwritten law]

I'm with tre on this one, although seeing what that guy at melevsreef makes would be awesome

 

[strout]

I thought about making one out of a used 55g tank also but figured, if I am going to spend 650 on a new skimmer and 2500 on a new tank how ever much for a kalk reactor and a carbon reactor, whats another 600 for a qulaity sump. The down side, I have been told he is really busy and it might be quite a long time before he would be able to get around to building me the sump even if he would agree to build the sump for me, I am in no hurry for the sump though. I will give him a few days though to answer my email and if I don't hear from him I will go ahead and order the new skimmer and set it up in my 125g tank and wait on the sump till a later date. Let me ask you a question: if you click on the link to the skimmer that I want to order, it says it uses three pumps to run the skimmer. If you look at the pics of the skimmer, a few of the pics only show 2 pumps and a few of the pics show 3 pumps. I wonder whats up with that, are those two differant models in the pics?

 

[TRe]

ill ask my buddy that has it what the actual footprint is with pumps and all

 

[strout]

Thanks for doing that for me. The web site says 13" x 17" Let me ask you one other thing. I am using goggle sketch up an drawing plans for the man near my house to make a sump for me if Mel dosn't have the time to do it. Anyway on Mels web site he shows two acrylic plates (on the sump I am wanting) one in the skimmer section and one in the return section. The one in the skimmer section has three holes drilled into the plate for probes and the one in the return is for a water top off float. Do you have any idea what size these holes need to be? I hav'nt a clue as to what the circumference size for these items are.

 

[algy1943]

is it advisable to install my fish tank heater in my sump

 

[strout]

Thats where I have mine at. I have just one heater in my sump, but I have heard it said that you should have two smaller heaters in the sump instead of just one in case one of them breaks. We will see what the pros say about this.

 

[strout]

I have my drawings done for my sump, I drew them in Google Sketch Up but I haven't figured out how to get them to post onto the web site yet to get some advice on the set up. I have the drawings done but have not put the deminisions onto the drawings yet, haven't figured that out yet either, lol. There is a way the you can have the program put the measurements onto the drawings, but I guess that is over my head, I have tried but can't seem to get it right. I have to get some ink for the printer, then I will try and print the drawings from Sketch Up and then scan them back into the puter. The way this Sketch Up works: After you make your drawings and save them into your puter, when you go back into your puter to look at the drawings the sketch up program opens back up and then your drawings pop up. I think if you make your drawings then save them to your puter and then deleated the Sketch Up program from your puter, you would't be able to look at your drawings. I also drew my new tank stand lol, with the tank on it, its a fun program. Its also in three D, so you can rotate the stand or sump around and get a view from all of the differant angles.

 

[epond83]

For the size of the holes you need to figure out what you plan to put there and find out size from the maufacter.

You should be able to export a jpeg from sketch Up which then you can choose how to open the jpeg. but yeah as far as i know only sketch up can open a .skp file. Good program for quick mock ups, not sure if it's the best for working drawings though, but we have to make do with what we have.

 

[strout]

LOL I put a piece of computer paper up on my screen and taped it there, then put dots on the corners of the drawings then connected the dots. The down side, I have about 5 or6 pics to do of the sump. LOL It will work though. I don't know what kind of probes I will be needing in the tank, so I will just have who ever builds the sump to drill the acrylic holes about a 1/4 inch then I will be able to drill them out larger to what I need after the controller is bought.

 

[TRe]

so what it wont print out the drawing? when you have it on your screen just press the "print screen" button and than open microsft paint and paste it in ther... youll have to crop out the task bar and stuff but it should work! also on the size of the holes it hard to say becuase like was already mentioned you need to know what going there... ill measure my ph and temp probes to give you an idea... also heres what my friend said about the skimmer:

Hey whats up, ya he needs to keep that in mind (3 pumps) I had to readjust my whole sump because I made the compartment for it to narrow the pumps didn't fit, so I rigged the pumps to hang underneath the skimmer they sit about 4 inches below it instead of mounted on the side of it, they just hang under it. My next sump will compensate for this. Let me know if he wants to see it.

 

[strout]

Thanks for checking on that for me TRe. If you don't mind, ask him how big should I make the compartment in the sump for that skimmer and if I had the baffle wall for the skimmer section set at 10 inches would that be good enough or should I make a stand for the skimmer to raise it up a bit and that would also let me keep more water in the skimmer section, and lastly, if he advices to make a skimmer stand to raise the skimmer up, how big should the stand be, right to left and front to back? The book says this skimmer needs (I think) 6 to 10 inches of water to operate,thats where the 10 inch baffle wall is coming from. Thanks for checking on this for me.

 

[strout]

I have figured out how to get the drawings of my sump to our web site DISCLAIMER: These aren't the best, but I think you will get the idea. Skimmer chamber left, return, middle and refugium right side.

First pic overall design of the sump

2nd pic front view of the tank, the two horazonial lines in the sump are for, left one- probes for PH and what ever the second one for a, auto top off. I have these mounted at the same level as the top of the baffle wall, is this right?

Third pic is of the divider between the sump and the return chamber (not to scale, lol)

5th pic This dosn't really show it that good but what you are looking at is the yellow band around the top of the sump, it will be some where around 2 inches wide, support. One solid piece.

I saved this pic for last because this is where I am having a problem. This pic is the box in the sump in the left top corner. Water from the DT drains into this chamber which drains over some Live rock then drains out of the chamber thru the bottom and into the skimmer chamber. My problem is: I want a filter sock, what should I do about this problem, do away with the live rock chamber and mount a filter sock here? The live rock chamber was to help with micro bubbles, the live rock would help bust them up before they make it thru the live rock.
I don't have any dimensions on the sump yet as I have not figured these out yet, alot depends on the size the skimmer chamber needs to be. I am also thinking of adding a fourth chamber to the right side of the sump. This chamber will be taller than the refugium, it will be used as a auto top off water tank, good idea or bad?