Sump

Hows the sump plans look? Each grid/tile is 1 square inch. Right side is skimmer and left is return

 

Make sure you check out the optimal water depth needed for your skimmer, if there is one. Also make sure the skimmer actually fits in there preferably with a little room to spare so you can work on it easier. That water level will be too deep for some skimmers unless you make a stand of some sort for the skimmer, which isn't hard just more stuff to do/make. Looks good other than that though.

 

Yup did all that, down to every inch of valuable space, and i plan on building a stand for the skimmer i was just wondering for the water flow throughout the sump and it making it to the return section. Thanks a lot!

PS: you hit the nail on the head with those questions, k+!

 

So the skimmer section depth will be set to 12 inches and you have 3 inches left over.The return section is good and will allow plenty of room for water loss. However, do you know you have enough spare room for the water that drains back from the tank when the return is off? you want to maximize your volume, but you also want to minimize the chance of getting the floor wet.

 

Does it still have enough room to hold a worst case backflow when the power goes off? My 100G flows 3.8 gallons back but I maintain 8 gallons of freeboard just in case.

 

You also will want to check how much water will be in your return pump chamber and make sure you have enough water in there so your pump doesn't run dry if it doesn't get topped off for a day or two. You will evaporate more water than you currently do before adding a sump because of all the extra surface area of water exposed to air so take that into account as well.

 

I drilled holes in the returns directly below the water line in the tank and barely any water flows back. Including the water from the overflow, its plenty room, believe it or not. good observation.

Answered above, thanks for the input.

Theres not really anything i can do about this, honestly. My stand is only 22" across so the sump is as wide and long as it can be, and similarly, the skimmer section is as small as it can be. That is the maximum size of the return unfortunately. I had a sump before, just without baffles. Thanks again everyone!

 

Never ever depend on drilled holes, they will fail and at the worst possible moment, remember Murphys Law. Holes require cleaning and maintenance and even then whats to stop a snail or anemone from parking over the hole? Or a piece of fl;oating food , a small fish or algae. Just like check valves, they are a crutch to prop up something that was not designed properly.
Always keep your returns just below the surface so they are exposed with a small easily calculated amount of backflow. No floods and no worries. Nothing beats an air gap for backflow prevention.

 

Do you have an auto topoff of some sort then? It will be a very good idea to do and there are ways you can set them up that are pretty safe and cheap. Otherwise you risk burning out your return pump IMO.