Hi All,
I'm in the design stage of building a new sump for a 100 gallon tank. I currently have a FW refugium on my planted discus tank, and we never have any nitrates (unless I wait a really long time between water changes), so I don't want to just do a wet/dry. I thought a combo might be fun. The reef people probably do these all the time, but I didn't see anything on MFK with this kind of design (I'm sure there is one somewhere).
So, any feedback would be appreciated. The background info and details are below the diagram. In my experience, people tend to like pictures first.
Background info:
Display Tank: 100g of water from inside dimensions.
Outside dimensions: 72x18x22
Plecos, cats, eels etc (dirty fish)
Under the stand, I have ~ 70" L x 14" W x 19" H to work with
Planning to find a 48" ~50 gallon tank that will fit.
Tank is not drilled (not sure if it is tempered), so planning on making 2 PVC overflows with durso type heads inside 2 corner overflow boxes. (most likely 1.25")
Each overflow should run up to 600 gph, and I am planning to run 2 QuietOne 3000's that should give me just less than 600 gph each at a 4' head. My target is around +- 1000 gph for a 10x turnover, so the two pumps should get me there and provide redundancy.
Chamber 1: Thin pre-filter sock: Act as a strainer for the big stuff, but let some of the other small particulate through to where the plants and shrimp are. In my current setup, 2 shrimp have completely cleaned all of the mulm out of the sump, so some material settling will help to feed them. Also, the plants may be able to use some of the settling small particulate as fertilizer (maybe...)
Chamber 2: Either mud, or some other nutrient rich substrate for the plants. I will make the openings between the chambers big enough for the shrimp to move around freely to clean up. In my current setup, some material gets trapped at the bottom of chamber 1 that the shrimp can't get to. There may be a few small random fish in there too. I will use a piece of egg crate to keep shrimp and other fish out of the rest of the system. Using a vertical piece should keep anyone from getting stuck to it from any sort of suction that could come from screening just the smaller opening.
Chamber 3: Standard wet/dry setup with a drip plate, then filter floss, then bio-balls or scrubbies. I will attempt to get the 2/3 out 1/3 submerged ratio... but that might be difficult being that I have a limited height to work with and I need to make sure the pumps remain under water. The specifics will just have to be worked out when I have all the pieces.
Chamber 4: I'm debating about whether to use a divider between the WD output and the pump. I guess it would help to make sure the lower biomaterial never dries out... and creates a lower bound for the water level. But, if the water got lower than where the divider would be, the pumps would probably be starting to suck air anyway.
Question: Is there any specific reason that many of the WD chambers keep the biomaterial off the bottom other than for flow? I would think I could leave an inch gap between the bottom of the sump and the egg crate used to support the bio material and that should allow for flow, and let me use the space efficiently. I am hoping that I have a biomaterial volume of 14" L x 14" W x 10" H. I will work to maximize the height, but I'm not sure how much space the drip tray and floss will take up. So, this was my guess.
Comments:
I haven't built one of these before, but I have done a fair amount of reading here. (and I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ) So, any feedback before I start building would be appreciated. As I have read on so many threads, the devil is in the details!
Dr. Joe and others, I would love to get your input.
Also, I have not yet found a tank so use, so if you happen to have an extra one that will fit with my space constraints please let me know.
-Eric
I'm in the design stage of building a new sump for a 100 gallon tank. I currently have a FW refugium on my planted discus tank, and we never have any nitrates (unless I wait a really long time between water changes), so I don't want to just do a wet/dry. I thought a combo might be fun. The reef people probably do these all the time, but I didn't see anything on MFK with this kind of design (I'm sure there is one somewhere).
So, any feedback would be appreciated. The background info and details are below the diagram. In my experience, people tend to like pictures first.
Background info:
Display Tank: 100g of water from inside dimensions.
Outside dimensions: 72x18x22
Plecos, cats, eels etc (dirty fish)
Under the stand, I have ~ 70" L x 14" W x 19" H to work with
Planning to find a 48" ~50 gallon tank that will fit.
Tank is not drilled (not sure if it is tempered), so planning on making 2 PVC overflows with durso type heads inside 2 corner overflow boxes. (most likely 1.25")
Each overflow should run up to 600 gph, and I am planning to run 2 QuietOne 3000's that should give me just less than 600 gph each at a 4' head. My target is around +- 1000 gph for a 10x turnover, so the two pumps should get me there and provide redundancy.
Chamber 1: Thin pre-filter sock: Act as a strainer for the big stuff, but let some of the other small particulate through to where the plants and shrimp are. In my current setup, 2 shrimp have completely cleaned all of the mulm out of the sump, so some material settling will help to feed them. Also, the plants may be able to use some of the settling small particulate as fertilizer (maybe...)
Chamber 2: Either mud, or some other nutrient rich substrate for the plants. I will make the openings between the chambers big enough for the shrimp to move around freely to clean up. In my current setup, some material gets trapped at the bottom of chamber 1 that the shrimp can't get to. There may be a few small random fish in there too. I will use a piece of egg crate to keep shrimp and other fish out of the rest of the system. Using a vertical piece should keep anyone from getting stuck to it from any sort of suction that could come from screening just the smaller opening.
Chamber 3: Standard wet/dry setup with a drip plate, then filter floss, then bio-balls or scrubbies. I will attempt to get the 2/3 out 1/3 submerged ratio... but that might be difficult being that I have a limited height to work with and I need to make sure the pumps remain under water. The specifics will just have to be worked out when I have all the pieces.
Chamber 4: I'm debating about whether to use a divider between the WD output and the pump. I guess it would help to make sure the lower biomaterial never dries out... and creates a lower bound for the water level. But, if the water got lower than where the divider would be, the pumps would probably be starting to suck air anyway.
Question: Is there any specific reason that many of the WD chambers keep the biomaterial off the bottom other than for flow? I would think I could leave an inch gap between the bottom of the sump and the egg crate used to support the bio material and that should allow for flow, and let me use the space efficiently. I am hoping that I have a biomaterial volume of 14" L x 14" W x 10" H. I will work to maximize the height, but I'm not sure how much space the drip tray and floss will take up. So, this was my guess.
Comments:
I haven't built one of these before, but I have done a fair amount of reading here. (and I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ) So, any feedback before I start building would be appreciated. As I have read on so many threads, the devil is in the details!
Dr. Joe and others, I would love to get your input.
Also, I have not yet found a tank so use, so if you happen to have an extra one that will fit with my space constraints please let me know.
-Eric