Building a sump

Greetings,

Encouraged by the Ro-DI discussion we had I venture to ask you guys another question and I thank you very much for your time and kindness.

I have a 29G Biocube and under the tank in the cabinet I can place an old 6G tank as a sump. I can place there the heater, Prot.skimmer, etc. without doing any mods to the tank (I don't like modifying ready made things).

The thing that worries me the most is the loss of power.
For the Biocube I will have to use a pump to supply water to the sump and another one from sump to tank. In case of power loss the inlet pump will continue siphoning and the sump will not have the capacity to handle the amount of water. So, water on the floor = trouble with my wife ;D

What solutions are available ? Is there any sort of check valve that will stop the flow once the pump stops supplying ?

Cheers,
Marian

 

you only need one pump that is to pump the water from the sump to the tank, and then you use a hang on back overflow on the tank to siphon the water to the sump, when there is an power outage the pump stops and the overflow will stop the siphon, do not fill the sump to the top as you will need some space for the water that drains down from the tank until the level for the overflow is reached and the siphon stops. and i think a 10 gal. tank would be a better size for your sump if it fits in the stand.

 

...........and to add to this suggestion, you can also install a check valve, like this one.....
and get a custom sump made to your specs. Build it as high as you can without interfering with your daily/weekly duties. This way if the power goes, you wont have the ball and chain on your back or have to pick up the little swimming pool. Luna

 

If you can't do an over flow, do not even attempt a sump. 2 pumps will not work long term, one of the pumps will slow down and you will get water on the floor.

So you need some type of an overflow on the main tank, so that the water will overflow into the new sump when water is pumped into the main tank.

I hate to say this, but I would say that a 6 gallon sump is not really worth the work on an AIO tank.

Kim

 

Greetings and many thanks to all of you.

Well, the dual structure using two pumps worried me from the very beginning. Unfortunately, for those of you knowing the Biocube and its canopy there is no way to add an overflow.

But, the way the water flows when the power goes off the level in chamber 1 get under the level of the upper inlet. So, when this happens if a small hole (one or two 1/8" holes) are placed above the water line, the siphoning effect will break. That's the failsafing mechanism. As long time as the holes are fully submerge the water will keep flowing into the sump. The bad - I will have to manually engage the siphon whenever I cut the power of Biocube main pump and the water level lowers. I will see how cumbersome this will be.
... so out with one pump.

Now, the Biocube was meant to work without any addition (it has a three chambers system built on its back with mechanical + biological filtration) I don't think this addition is worthless. The way I designed there is plenty of space for another mechanical filtration pad, about same numbers of bioballs as chamber 2 + heater and a Tunze 9002 Prot. skimmer. I will post some pictures tonight.

Cheers,
Marian

 

Should I get a Sump

Ingore This Reply

 

Overflow with return and one way valves.

I have been using these one way valves for over 5 years with out any problems.