Sump Tank?

[nebelhund]

Ok, this may be a really stupid question. How or what is a sump tank in a fresh water tank useful? Does it take the place of another piece of equipment or...

Just trying to understand what they are and how they are used.

Thanks!

Even pointing to a site that explains it in a fresh water system would be appreciated.

[angel]

I'm no expert, but I'll offer my limited understanding. I had thought they sort of act as a giant AquaClear, but sit on the floor. You would put all your filter materials into them, run the water from the main tank into the "sump" tank, where it gets filtered, and then runs back out into the main tank again through another hose. So it could be a bigger filter that way. Might need less cleaning too. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

[jgentry]

A lot of peope think of sumps and saltwater aquariums, but they are great filters for freshwater as well. My 220 has a 50g sump and my 90g has a 15g sump.

A sump provides several benifits

-You have more water volume
-Your water level in your tank does not decrease as water evaporates, it decreases in the sump so you don't get that ungly aquarium not filled look
-They can provide literally tons more biological filtration then any other filter type.
-You can customize sumps to do just about what ever you want
-You can put heaters, UV sterilizers, ETC in the sump and do not have to have the eye sores in the tank.

The way it works is you have either an overflow box on a drilled tank. The water syphons to the sump and passes through your filtration which usually consists of a filter pad, a large biological chanber with bioballs, then another filter pad, then what ever machanical filtration you want to use if any. YOu then usually have a chamber for heaters/etc and the water is then pumped back up to the tank by a water pump.

In many ways sumps are vastly superior to all canisters and hangons. Plus if you want to keep large cichlids they are great for handling the large amounts of waste and ammonia.

[nebelhund]

Good info, thanks very much!

My 180 isn't drilled but I would be interested in trying out a sump tank with it. I have enough space in the stand underneath.

Jgentry, do you have a purchased system or one you put together in your 220? I can see being able to jury rig one together from a fish tank with 2 canister filters(effectively just pumping). One canister to suck from the big tank into the sump, the other sucking from the other end of the sump and pumping it back into the big tank. (I have 2 2217 Eheim's that were for the tank, I might them out, as long as they pulled/pushed the same amount of water it might work ok.)
Hmmm, could get messy though if one died or got clogged.

I can definitely see how having the extra water would help and it would be nice to have the heater and sterilizers out of site.

[jgentry]

Premade ones are pretty expensive. All you really need is an old aquarium that will fit underneath, some eggcrate, bioballs, acrylic or plastic sheets and some silicon. You can make a pretty good one for 25% of what a store bought one would cost.

[nebelhund]

Pump wise would canister filters work?

Is there a better product that would handle this? (I can see that a single pump would work better, with 2 if one burnt out you would overflow either the main tank or the sump.)

This sounds like an interesting project to undertake.

[sirknight]

I think you also need to think about the type of overflow box you are going to use and how you are going to setup your return system.

1) external Overflow Box.
I have used and or seen just about every overflow box that is made for a non pre-drilled tanks and the safest is the U tube type. The reason is, you don't have to worry about an additional pump(that can fail) that is used to keep out air of the overflow. An example of these is the one that CRP makes ( I had a friend overflow his tank because of this pump failing). I can provide links to the U tube types if needed.

2) returning water back to the tank.

This is done with a return water pump either an internal or external water pump can be used. The size of the pump needed will be determined by the size of the overflow box you use. I also ways recommend a pump a little bigger than needed and just add a value to reduce the return water

Example: if you have a overflow box rated at 650 gallon per hour I would say get a return pump of at least 800GPH to make sure you have enough water retuning to the tank. If the water is not returning fast enough air will start accumulating in the U tube and could break the siphon.

You will also have to make some kind of provision for power outage, so water will not return back into the sump-wet/dry when the power goes out. If you don't you will flood your sump and have water on your floor.

You will need to break the siphon on the return side. This can be done by drilling a hole just below the water level of the elbow you use on the return at the tank level. When power goes out the water will start entering the sump-wet/dry via the return line until the water level drops below the drilled hole. When it does, the siphon will break and no more water will enter the sump-wet/dry through the return line.

In saltwater tank sumps, are used for hiding equipment, adding additional water volume and adding additional types of filtering. The main filtering of the water is done through live rock. Additional filtering for saltwater maybe be carbon, etc.
Wet/drys are not a good type of filtering for saltwater because of their tendency to trap debris which in turn will cause a raise in Nitrates.

[jon carman]

If you go the sump route, check everything twice to make sure all is well because it can get messy. Canister filters can be just as bad when a hose pops off.