Sump layouts and planning!

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I am wanting to add a 900l*33w*38h sump to my 5ft tank.

I am not sure what the compartments sizes should be and what they should contain and what the water level should be.

Any advice or possibly pics or layouts of sumps would be appreciated I just want an idea.

I would like to put the best possible filtration in the sump. My skimmer is external so I am going to use the whole tank.

I was thinking deep sand bed. live rock and a tricle filter with lava rock in the first compartement.

Sorry for all the questions and things.

Thanx Ian
 
Hi Ian - perhaps have a look at the "Member's Setups" section for pictures, as well as "Full Tank Pics"....

I think that the more experienced reefers here on this site would be able to assist better w.r.t designing a decent sump.

But, here are my thoughts in any case:
I would say make the 1st compartment big enough for the live rock you want to use. You can use a trickle filter if you want to, but I have read too may times that this could be a cause for nitrate issues.....
Second compartment: perhaps your DSB (deep sand bed) and / or refugium
Third compartment: Chemical filtration (i.e. carbon, phosphate removers, etc....
Fourth compartment: heater/s, auto topup/RO topup, return pumps...

Regarding the sizes of the compartments: I think the biggest compartment/s should be for the DSB/refugium, and perhaps the live rock....
The compartment for the chemical filtration does not need to be big at all
And then the compartment for the return pumps, etc. would depend on the size of the pumps, etc....
 
Agree with above 100%, personally i would not go for the trickle filter either. Feed your skimmer from the first compartment, into the second so the feed pump will be slightly slower than your water coming into the sump so you only have a slight bypass.
 
I was thinking to plumb my skimmer directly from the over flow but from a T-piece so that one pipe goes into the skimmer and the other straight into the sump. Both controlled by taps so that I can manage how much water is pushing through my skimmer.

Would you guys then agree that I should only go for live rock and deep sand bed.

Thanx Ian
 
Sounds good, try lighting the sump, not too strong and place cheato over the DSB to help with denitrification plus you have a great place for bugs to breed inside the cheato and use that area to its max as a refugium with a DSB. You then run the light in the sump area on a reverse light cycle which helps stabilize the PH dips at night.
 
I had a look at all the sumps at melvels reef. What I did notice was that they separate the refuigium from the sump completely and have ball valves to controll the ammount of water through it. Thus the total ammount of water going through the sump IS NOT the same as the total ammount going over the dsb and refugium.:p

Is it neccessary to have an excluded section with your dsb or can it all be the same flow. I guess it probably depends on flow over the dsb.

Any other opinions and suggestions welcome. I am just getting ideas so, ;)

Thanx Ian
 
I used a 75 gallon tank that is drilled on one end. One half is split into a refugium with two input pipes that in a inverted L go into the main sump. Then I have two baffles and a spot for sponges in the other end. I run the skimmer between the refugium and outlet.
 
Thanx 120 gallons that sounds interesting, you don't perhaps have a pic.

Any other designs with pics are welcome.

Thanx Ian
 
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