[BigHildy53]

I have a 75 gallon rectangle planted aquarium. I am thinking of putting in a sump for the specific purpose of moving items such as the PH probe, CO2 diffuser and one of the heaters out of the tank. I already have CPR overflow to use. I'd probably move some filtration to the sump also. Opinions? Anyone else do something similar?

 

[Kathyy]

How is this plan not a real sump?

Lots of people here run sumps under planted tanks, works great. I even have the thermometer in the sump.

 

[BigHildy53]

That was my bad. I always associated sumps with protein skimmers and Marine tanks.

What kind and brand of filtration do you use in your sump? What flow rate do you use? I have an FX6 as my main filtration. I am thinking about using a lower flow for the sump with the specific goal of lowering nitrates. I stock heavily.

 

[zerodameaon]

The brand of filtration depends on what brand sump you buy. It looks like a lot of us just run repurposed fishtanks for DIY and use some kind of filter sock and poly filter pad. My sump is a 20 long with a mix of hydor and seachem bio media, a unbranded sock and poly filter pad bought from the LFS. Wet dry sumps with dedicated skimmer chambers are not really needed here.

 

[Kathyy]

My objective is no equipment in the tank so go for a lot of flow through, might be 5x tank volume. Had to break out the teeth in the overflow before the pumps could be run at full GPH. I go for prefilter sponges over the drains rather than socks as cleaning them is less frustrating for me. Also use sponge for filter media.

Don't know about nitrate reduction, I add nitrate to my planted tank, but with a heavily stocked tank maybe a wet dry would be good for adding more O2. Maybe grow plants in the sump? Put a prefilter sponge on the pump intake or put in a partition with a light on a timer and done. Or look at the over tank sump, theatermusic has a journal and it is really attractive.

 

[Bratmanxj]

Get the largest "vessel" you can fit under your display tank, like previously stated a spare fish tank is usually the simplest sump to start with. With freshwater tanks you can get REALLY simple like I did and run a foam wall leaving a lot of open space for heaters and mechanical. I have a 20g long under a 75g tank with 3 porret foam walls (10 pores per inch, 20 ppi, 30 ppi) providing filtration and 2-150w heaters, I do all my dosing and meds through sump.

 

[Ozymandias]

currently building this, the sump is going to be home to nano fish and shrimp the upper tank has 3 young polypterus. I do plan on running CO2 in this but not sure how much CO2 loss i will have from it so might end up messing with the design a bit.

 

[BigHildy53]

Thanks for the information. I bought a TRIGGER SYSTEMS EMERALD 34 REFUGIUM SUMP. I am planning on using MIRACLE MUD 2 – FRESHWATER in the refugium section. May move plants from above that need to be trimmed to this section. I'm going for a slightly lower flow rate to use Brightwell Aquatics Xport-NO3 to help lower nitrates. I have a heavily stocked tank. My nitrates aren't out of control but could be lower. Plus I wanted to move equipment out of the tank. I'll keep my FX6 in addition to the sump.

 

[zerodameaon]

I do plan on running CO2 in this but not sure how much CO2 loss i will have from it so might end up messing with the design a bit.

Don't worry about that to much. I run a reef ready system down to a sump with a decent amount of aeration and I keep almost the same BPS as when I had a canister on my other 55g. Co2 is cheap, don't make your life harder by sealing stuff up or sacrificing something to avoid a little off-gassing.

 

[BigHildy53]

My first mistake was the heading for this tread. If I could change the name now, it would be something like “Sump Basics Matter Most!”. I made several mistakes. By the measurements the sump would fit in the cabinet under the aquarium. However, not factoring in the two midpoint support posts meant that I couldn’t get sump into the cabinet. Thankfully there’s room behind the stand and the sump fits there. That made some of the plumbing easier. My planning called for swing check valves to prevent reverse syphoning. But I forgot one for the CO2 reactor. That resulted in the first overflow issue. What I then didn’t realize is that the top of the FX6 wasn’t on tight enough. Water was leaking out the back. I didn’t realize this until late Sunday night.
I scrambled Sunday night to find and stop the leak. After monitoring the water levels in the aquarium and sump for several hours I decided it was safe to go to sleep. I had to take off work Monday to do the cleanup. Where more “fun” was had. I’m a large around the waste person so fitting behind the aquarium not an easy fit. While trying to reach the return pumps I put my hand in the wrong place and broke part of the top of the sump. No major damage to the pump but resulted in a nice slice in my hand/wrist. As the result of moving back and forth behind the aquarium I broke the bracket for the CO2 reactor.
Once I removed water from the sump I was able to move it out so I could start the cleanup process. The carpet under the sump was very wet. I have a water blocking pad under the sump; it works well. But it was so wet I can’t complain about the carpet being so wet. When removing the sump I realized I placed the sump over the emergency cut off valve for the gas fireplace. Great placement, NOT. Now I have to move the sump further to the back corner so the cut off valve isn’t blocked. My kids will have to do gymnastics when I need to reach the return pumps.
I got everything cleaned up and back together. Had to fix leaks here and there. But still think the major leak was from the FX6 due to the lid not being on tight enough. Now the monitoring. The moral of the story, plan twice execute once.

 

[ichy]

man that sucks. ya planning can go a long ways!