Simple Sump for Nano - Would It Work?

[Ryi]

I did it years ago with Tetra 3 gallon (oval) and a 5 gallon sump (AllGlass). I actually had the 5 gallon behind the main tank instead of below.
Used a u-tube and overflow box on the 3 gallon (took some improvisation) and fed the 5 gallon, then had a powerhead with foam sleeve and polishing pad insert sending the cleaned water back via clear tubing to the 3 gallon.
It made water changes and establishing chemical equilibrium stupid-easy. It didn't accomplish my second objective of a clean, simple look, however, as the overflow was almost as big as the Red Sea (now Palm Azoo) mini h.o.b. I was trying to replace.
I think your plan of a nano sump sounds great, good luck!

[morninglight]

Originally Posted by Wicket_lfe

as long as you can find an adequate water pump, I'm all for it.

I had a tough enough time finding mine, and I've already throttled it down. I also got picky about it being external, hehe.

I'm inclined to think that a submersible pump would be simplest, but I would have to do some real research first. Still, I think something could be found. I have a really good LFS and there's always the internet, too.

Originally Posted by Ryi

I did it years ago with Tetra 3 gallon (oval) and a 5 gallon sump (AllGlass). I actually had the 5 gallon behind the main tank instead of below.
Used a u-tube and overflow box on the 3 gallon (took some improvisation) and fed the 5 gallon, then had a powerhead with foam sleeve and polishing pad insert sending the cleaned water back via clear tubing to the 3 gallon.
It made water changes and establishing chemical equilibrium stupid-easy. It didn't accomplish my second objective of a clean, simple look, however, as the overflow was almost as big as the Red Sea (now Palm Azoo) mini h.o.b. I was trying to replace.
I think your plan of a nano sump sounds great, good luck!

Yeah, the overflow box would kind of wreck the clean effect. It would certainly put a downward limit on the size and shape of the nano.

I don't know that I'd trust the siphon if the power went off, too. I've heard that they may be OK, but I'm a suspicious sort.

I'm currently adding the fish population to my first tank and working on putting together tank number 2, so this is not exactly the highest on my list right now, but I would like to tackle the project at some point. I think I'd put a betta in one of these. It might be nice to run three different shapes and sizes of mini nano off the same sump. That's what I'd be tempted to do for an office setup.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by iRun

The sump solves alot of problems for a nano. Increaese water volume, greatly improves mechanical and biological filtration, stabilizes water parameters with less danger of massive upset, and perhaps most importantly let's you hide ugly stuff like heaters. Love this idea.

+1,

The main issue is the placement of the return, it is placed higher, then if the check valve fails............you are safe still. So placing the drain just slightly below the water surface will reduce much loss of water in the main tank if the power goes out and if the check valve fails.

This stuff will and does fail.

Another idea is to copy the Mame overflow design.
But I'd stick with your idea but place the return up higher.
This way if anything goes wrong, the volume of water drained into the sump is only an inch etc and the tank is not drained.

This will happen, it's only a question of WHEN.

[morninglight]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

This will happen, it's only a question of WHEN.

Good point.

I originally didn't want the line down low because of the possibility of failure, but then I thought of the check valve, and I'll admit that I kind of thought at the time that it was a magic solution that wouldn't fail itself. Alas, not so.

Definitely need to consider possible failure at every point.

[Wicket_lfe]

LMK when you pick a pump/powerhead.

[crazydog64]

Couldn't you have your inflow just as high as your outflow but on the opposite side of the tank, that way if the pump+checkvalve did fail your tank would only drain as low as it would have anyway; or if you wanted to try something crazy you could put your smaller diameter inflow tubing inside your larger diamter outflow tubing, it would probably negate some of the water exhange going on in the tank, but you would only have 1 hole.

[asmith]

You aren't going to get much flow on your return line since you won't have any pressure head. You might want to do some experiments first to make sure you size your return line correctly before doing the real thing. Edit: I meant the "overflow" line not the return line I guess the way everyone else is using it. I am used to the return line being the side that returns to the pump.

[prototyp3]

Agree with the comments about raising the return line higher in the tank. This was a huge issue with ZeroEdge aquariums. The check valves failed and emptied the tank on the floor. Not fun.

Not sure what size your display is, but air line tubing for the return?
I'd go with a standard size return line personally. You can push whatever flow rate you want through it, and valves, accessories, etc will be much better quality and more durable.

[illiath]

Here's my Pico Saltwater tank setup.

Mine is backwards from what your suggesting, my 'fuge (sump) is on the right and is higher than the display tank.

The reason for that was simple, I bought a 5g ADA tank for the display, and could not bring myself to even think about drilling that guy. The sump is a 2g Evolve with none of the filtration running, because I do that elsewhere.

When I upgrade/replace the Freshwater tank, I'll be going with a pre-drilled/bulkheaded tank, but that guys huge so not really what you are after.

If you have money, I'd actually suggest a resource for you, check out http://www.micro-reefs.com/, they're a small company that specializes in smaller reef tanks, they have a new system which is pre-manufactured display and fuge setups. I only found out about those guys after buying my current setup, otherwise I wouldn't have gone the way I did. They're products page changes often, so you might want to send them an email. They seem willing to do specialty builds also.