Your Best Design Ideas for F/W Sump

[My3KidsDad]

We found a suitable first larger fresh water tank for anticipated angel and cichlids (tank is 80g. US, 48w16d24h). After reading everything i can find about F/W sumps in the diy section of AA, I am still somewhat in the dark as to what they best can be used for. We just finished building our frame for the 48" tank and it is ready for a sump of some sort, hopefully with a good canister filter.

What would we find useful in a good sump design? It can be as long as 40" and as wide as 12", and any good height up to 14" and still fit inside the stand. Jvision has stated in a previous post that he thinks a good sump might include:

"I would have 3 compartments:

1) water flows from the main tank into a filter compartment - just like you have it

2) water flows from filter compartment thru some baffles into the rearing compartment

3) water flows from rearing compartment thru some baffles into a pump compartment

Don't make the pump compartment too small, as this is where you'll experience all of your evaporation from."

Do we need a filter compartment if we include/use a canister?

How many rearing compartments would we really need?

Exactly how large should the return pump compartment be?

[letsgofishn]

Check Boom's work http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=21162

[jvision]

I would still have a filter compartment if you have a canister - but really, you don't need a canister with a sump. The reason I'd still have a filter compartment is that you're still going to get particulate waste going into the sump.

If you're going to be keeping Angels and other cichlids that live well with them (Rams, Apistos, Sevrums), you don't really need or want a rearing compartment in your sump. Their fry are VERY small in comparison to mouthbrooding African cichlids. Small fry would just get tossed around in the sump. You could use the middle section for extra biomedia, or as a refugium - a place to remove excess nutrients via plants (or there's an interesting DIY on MonsterFishKeepers.com called a Nitrate/Phosphate scrubber).

Your pump section should be at least 1/4 of the sump size... unless you have an ATO. Like I mentioned in that thread you quoted, the pump section is where the evaporation is realized; if it's too small, you'll have to add water every day.

If you can, get the biggest sump you can. Since 40x12 is an odd size, you could try to custom build a sump; but, the easiest thing would be a 33 gal tank - 36"x12"x12". They're commonly available for a decent price in the buy/sell forum.

[My3KidsDad]

I would still have a filter compartment if you have a canister - but really, you don't need a canister with a sump. The reason I'd still have a filter compartment is that you're still going to get particulate waste going into the sump.

If you're going to be keeping Angels and other cichlids that live well with them (Rams, Apistos, Sevrums), you don't really need or want a rearing compartment in your sump. Their fry are VERY small in comparison to mouthbrooding African cichlids. Small fry would just get tossed around in the sump. You could use the middle section for extra biomedia, or as a refugium - a place to remove excess nutrients via plants (or there's an interesting DIY on MonsterFishKeepers.com called a Nitrate/Phosphate scrubber).

Your pump section should be at least 1/4 of the sump size... unless you have an ATO. Like I mentioned in that thread you quoted, the pump section is where the evaporation is realized; if it's too small, you'll have to add water every day.

If you can, get the biggest sump you can. Since 40x12 is an odd size, you could try to custom build a sump; but, the easiest thing would be a 33 gal tank - 36"x12"x12". They're commonly available for a decent price in the buy/sell forum.

You also mentioned that if we want to go with a CO2 system that the down path of the water would likely evaporate the co2 before it could do any good. Just a question: has anybody tried using the water out from a canister to fill the sump.. and pump it back into the tank at the other end of the sump with a pump? But that would pose a problem with the unbalanced water column input/output of the canister- is that right?

Edited January 18, 2010 by My3KidsDad