Newbie looking for some sump design help!

1st off I want to thank everyone for all the great information I'm reading on here. So far I love this forum. Here is what I'm doing, I'm just starting to get into fish tanks and I got a 125 gallon tank. I just picked up a 75 gallon tank to use as my sump and an external skimmer. I'm looking for help on how to design my sump. I'm not sure how big to make each chamber and how many chambers do I need. I tried taking advice from the guy at the fish store but he was busy and I couldn't follow what he was saying. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

Id do three chambers, one ? i hvae first is would you like a fuge in this sump?

 

To be honest with you I'm not even sure what you are taking about. If you all think that is a good idea I probably will. I guess it depends on the benefits vs. the costs.

 

I use 3 chambers. One for a refugium where you can grow chaeto algae. One to house a protein skimmer and one for your sump. You can get by with two chambers and out your skimmer in your sump if you can maintain a constant water level with an auto top off.

 

With a 75 gallon you will have room to do a lot of good things. I would recommend doing a sump/fuge.

On the picture from left to right:

The first compartment will be a refugium. This is an area that you grow benificial algae and other organism to help with filtration and also small food that will be killed in the main tank. You will want at least a 4" sand bed in here along with a ball of chaeto algae. Cheap cone reflector lights with plant grow bulbs will suffice for giving the algae light.

The water should then pass through a bubble trap made up of two baffles placed closely together.

The next compartment will be the return chamber. This is where you place the pump to return the water to the main tank.

The far right compartment will be the other input and skimmer compartment. This is where the majority of the water from the main tank's overflow will enter the sump. This is also the best place to put your skimmer and heaters.


As for the plumbing, you will want the plumbing from your overflow to hit a T before it enters the sump. One end of the T will enter each end of the sump. One to the fuge, one to the skimmer compartment. After the T in the line to the fuge put in a ball valve. This is so you can dial back flow through the refugium. Most refugiums don't benefit from the full flow that your skimmer needs to work well.


Above all keep asking questions and get a lot of opinions. A 75 gallon sump is HUGE in comparison to what most of us have, and can help make your aquarium much easier to maintain if it's done right the first time. Make sure you are doing it the best way the first time so you don't have to do it again.

 

Thank you for all the great advice. I guess I have a few more questions for you all. 1st of all, my tank has 2 overflow boxes so hence to lines running to my sump. I understand that I should probably run them together and then T them off and run one to a fuge and one to my sump/skimmer. Now I don't understand this part, wouldn't I want my water to go through some kind of filter and the skimmer before it goes through the fuge? I wish I knew how to make the diagrams I keep seeing on here. I think I could draw it out better then explain it.

I was thinking 3 chambers, water will flow into one of them from my DT, run through probably a filter sock. In the bottom of that chamber I will have my pump that pumps to my external skimmer. From the skimmer then I will go to a bubble trap that leads into chamber 2, fuge. And then finally run through another bubble trap and to my return pump area. Would this work? Again, like I said before, this is my first tank and I'm not really sure what all I need to do. Just getting into the hobby. Thanks again to all of your great posts, I've been learning a lot and getting a little overwhelmed.

 

There are a lot of way to do it.... all will work. If you want the "best" way, the skimmer should get raw unfiltered tank water. Now if you want to pass that through a filter sock first, no problem. Plenty folks do. You want a bubble trap between that and the return chamber to prevent skimmer bubbles getting in your display tank.

The fuge should get raw unfiltered tank water too so all the little organisims will be fed. One animals poop is another animals dinner. Skimmer water might be too clean. Some folks use a filter sock to keep out too much poop. I don't and my fuge is probably too claen. No build up issues at all.

You don't need a bubble trap between your fuge and return section. There are no bubbles. Mine just overflows, but some sort of something to catch algae would probably be good. I keep meaning to put a grate on mine, but never get around to it. Never seen any algae outside the fuge.

So with that arrangement, that leaves the return section in the middle. You don't need to join your drains, but you do need to split some water to the fuge some how. If you do join your drains, just be sure to do it right. Meaning.... if your drains are 1 inch line, then join them to a 2 inch line. There are plenty of tees out there that split/join smaller lines to larger ones. Then you can run one 2" line to your skimmer section. You just need a small tee to your fuge. A 3/4 inch line would provide more than enough flow. Just make sure it is in the drain line that will have water. Meaning come off the bottom of the line, not the top.

 

My sump design seems to be a little simpler than most but I feel it is extremely efficient and easy to design, build and maintain. Picture speaks for itself......

 

I really prefer your design Mattheuw1. The main advantage to yours over what I see on this forum a lot is that the bubbles from the skimmer go through bubbles traps AND your fuge. The flow through the fuge isnt as slow as some people like but I've had that setup before and you NEVER get micro bubbles into the tank from the skimmer. I also dont want any of the pods / wildlife getting churned through the skimmer. Having them pumped through the return pump is bad enough but at least that pump isnt designed to be turbulent like a skimmers pump is.

Szrazzt

 

This design has worked well for me. My return is a rio 2500 with head it pumps about 500gph. I have a 600gph overflow. The water come trough the fuge at a perfect speed. Doesn't flush anything through it.

Water gets skimmed and heated in the first chamber, goes through the bubble trap, then into the fuge then into the return chamber to get sucked back up. Not one single microbubble makes it back to the top. The main thing when building the baffles is to make sure they are level and even so the water flows over each baffle wall equally instead of it flowing over one side of the wall only. But this goes for any sump/fuge design, not just mine.