It is a great idea, but I don't see too many people paying for a calculator when they can just post up in the DIY forum..."How big of a sump do I need?"
And I thought my 200 gallon sump on my 300 gallon was overdoing it.Camshaft Ramrod;2699708; said:So I'm assuming putting that 170 gallon sump with 2000 scrubbies on my 210 gallon was overdoing it...
I am going to be building designs as well so the effort is not lost, its just not completed.The number one problem a newer aquarium owner has when trying to make a sump is actually laying it out correctly and building it to work the best it can with the given space.
I understand this which is why I have it laid out so you can calculate the exact siphon depth of your specific tank. If you use check valves, enter 0" for the siphon depth. you still have the Error margin to give you extra room. Although, I don't know how you are going to use a check valve on the intake to stop the siphon. I can see it on the output, I suppose this is probubly what you are talking about.Also there are many things you can do to have very little syphon the sump pump turn off. There are syphon breaks (holes) you can put just below the water line. So when it stops the only syphon is what the hose has in it. And there are check valves. And also if you put the out let right at the surface of the tank there is no syphon there.
Already taken into consideration.The variables are overflow type, size, flow rates, and tank dimensions. I look forward to seeing how thorough you were making the calculator.
You can't pick a sump without finding out the siphon volume from the tank anyways. Otherwise your going HUGE and ou don't need to. Usually you just have to measure the height of the water over the overflow if you have a siphon break in the pump output. So your tank doesn't need to be setup at all. IF you don't have a siphon break, then position where you would like the output to be in the tank and measure it. This is the PROPER way of designing an eficient system without assuming you need a HUGE tank. The 1/3 is not helpful at all. You could probubly go down to a 1/4 tank size but even then you still only using percentages. I would rather know the exact size and dimensions I need and if I care to go larger, I can.The major flaw with the calculator is it requires the tank to already be set up and in operation to find the difference in the water height (when the pump is on and when it is off). The calculator won't help in the design phase without taking a wild guess.
Ya I am not sure. I figured for builders it may help.It is a great idea, but I don't see too many people paying for a calculator when they can just post up in the DIY forum..."How big of a sump do I need?" It is a great idea, but I don't see too many people paying for a calculator when they can just post up in the DIY forum..."How big of a sump do I need?"
Go big or go home. That's how we do it.dave'stank;2701310; said:It seems to me that Camshaft likes anythink ]V[ONSTER!!!
Not if you have a 6ft alligator gar and 2 fifty pound snapping turtlesCamshaft Ramrod;2699708; said:So I'm assuming putting that 170 gallon sump with 2000 scrubbies on my 210 gallon was overdoing it...
Ok, 3 Eheim canisters with a volume 36 liters on 240 gallon... No Issues.Please, first lets take personal opinion out of this and give us some scientific foundations for this.
Read my above post. A 55 gallon can hold over 60-90 liters of bio media. Thats a lot. Especially for 168 gallon tank. So yes, it is usful. This is the point of the calc, this 1/3 rule is speculation with no scientific facts behind it.Not useful info. It gave me the same answer for 55g as well as 168g and please don't say they would be the same.
I never said there was a problem with running that size sump, I was letting you know the difference in its holding volume at a specific height.I don't have a problem making a W/d sump with a 24"x24"x48" tank, tho it would be a custom tank and not available to the general public @ a petco, wallyworld or feed & farm store (lets face it, that's the supply of choice for DIYers). And if the design is capable of syphoning off 119g from the main tank, obviously the designer shouldn't be DIYing and they haven't asked me
The point of a large sump is because you need more media than a canister holding 10 times less producing excellent results even thought the sump media open to oxygen? What gives?Ok, let's qoute the rule of thumb properly and stop refering to it as 1/3 just to make your cause look better.
And the point of a large sump is NOT to hold the water contained in the pipes of the syphon
From everyone that tells you to build a HUGE sump for a tank that could work with a 45 gallon sump. Read what I wrote above.Where could you possibly read that into it??!
Have you measured the amount of media in properly built sumps? Can you honestly tell me a 55 gallon sump will not work on a 300 gallon tank? If you can, tell me why.This is the crux of your misconception. You create a larger sump to to support more bacteria because the old sump could not content with the current volume of ammonia / nitrItes.
If you don't design a sump to hold the "siphoned water" you risk overflow when the pump shuts off. Common sense.If you are designing the sump to hold the "syphon water" then it's just a holding tank.
They are seporate, I use both because many who browse this forums are from other countries and they use the metric system. Liters is also a figure commonly used in the states when dealing with media volume.Your formulas look convoluted when you mix metric and SAE, if you use the in the States stay with SAE.
For the last time, read carefully. When three canisters, totaling 36 liters of bio media at 900 GPH can run on a good stocked 240 gallon tank with perfect parameters, and then you tell people they need a 80 gallon sump which can hold over 100 liters, don't you think this is misleading?See personal opinion again...it doesn't fit in an equation.