# converting saltwater sump to wet/dry



## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Hello Everyone,
I'm in the process of swithching from a salt water tank to a cichlid tank. My question is I have a 150 gallon reef ready tank with a 30 gallon sump. Whats the best way to convert my sump to a wet/dry and also what other filtration will I need besides that?

Thanks Gus


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## LG0815 (Aug 1, 2007)

wash it out really good and the hoses


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Thanks, but I mean how can I convert it to a wet dry.

Gus


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## Scuds03 (Apr 27, 2009)

Use a filter sock and lots of pot scrubbies. If you do a quick google search for DIY wet/dry sumps you will find lots of good plans and how to's.


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## LG0815 (Aug 1, 2007)

ya just by pot scrubbies and other biological filtration


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## LG0815 (Aug 1, 2007)

you got any pics of the filter


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

yes here are some pictures, I'm just not sure how to set it up.. there basically one big chamber a few baffles and a smaller chamber for a return pump.

Here are the pictures..


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

also I forgot 2 things,

also next to the sump I have a plastic refugium thats about 6 gallons and it's just tied into the overflow line and I have a slow flow going into the sump I will take more pictures.

now when I set this up to a wet/dry will that be enough filtration or should I add a canister filter.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

here some pictures I took today. I also through one in of the whole tank..


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

bump


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

any suggestion on how to make this work..

Thanks

Gus


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

Hi Gusto. Could you draw up a "cartoon" showing (not to scale) what's hooked up where, where the baffles are, where the overflows come down, what those cylinder looking things hanging down are, etc? I'm guessing there's some sort of refugium set up as well right now?

Others may be more perceptive, but i'm not sure what's what simply based on your photo.

-Rick (the armchair aquarist)


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

I'll get something posted up tomorrow. the cylinder is my dual carbon and phosban reactors. they really aren't in the sump just hanging above it and pumping into it.

Thanks Gus


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## Scuds03 (Apr 27, 2009)

For fresh water the best setups have proven to be the easiest / cheapest ones. Basically you want to find a way to get water flowing through Poly-fil stuffing fiber which you can find a big ba of for $2.00 in the arts and crafts section in Wal-mart. That will be for mechanical filtering and water polishing. Then you want a chamber full of pot scrubbies which can be found at dollar stores for biological filtering of ammonia and nitrite. Once you have the pot scrubbies you dont need to ever replace them. They are used to make surface area for benificial bacteria colonies. You wont be needing any carbon at all so dont spend money on it anymore. You can still benifit from your reactors by filling them with natural ph buffers like crushed coral or aragonite. With this kind of setup and media you will have clean clear water and only need to spend like $2.00 a month for poly-fil depending on how much you see fit to put in your sump.

But I agree use paint to draw a quick cartoon and post it. Its a little hard to see how your setup is with the pictures you posted.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Here is a drawing, please any help would be greatly appreciated, also I'm more of a visual person some if someone has a old sketch of something close that would be great.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

anyone?


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

anyone? oops didn't mean to do it twice


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

gusto said:


> anyone?


Do you have cats? I'd probably take a large kitty-litter pail (or a 5-gallon bucket if you prefer, but the kitty-litter pails are square), cut appropriate holes in the bottom for the water to get out (out the side near the bottom, or even just out the bottom itself if you're willing to put it on stilts), fill with bio-media of choice. Rig up an egg-crate platform near the top (might be able to cut a square with rounded corners just the right size and it'll fit into some ridges in the pail, or you might have to glue some pvc standoffs in the corners... whatever). Get some pre-filter of choice (I'd go with polyester quilt batting from the wal-mart, maybe 1.5" thick... whatever floats your boat though) and stick that on top of the eggcrate.

Depending on how your water comes down you may or may not need some sort of drip-plate underneath the polyester prefilter to help evenly distribute the water across your bio media.

Drop that beast into the left portion of your sump, beneath the outlets from the tank.

Stick a heater (or two) in whatever chamber they fit nicely in... I'd pull the reactors and just not use them. You can keep the refugium as is, just replace the saltwater flora/fauna with some fast growing freshwater plants that you can periodically trim back.

That should be all you need, really... some folks like filter socks and other assorted stuff... if you wanted to you could reroute one of your overflow pipes (looked like you had more than one?) to a filter sock of your preferred particle size, and leave the other going into your wet/dry.

My understanding is that to get the most out of a wet/dry you need to keep some (or most... or all?) of the media above the water level, so I'd try to get your trickle tower (i.e. kitty litter pail, 5 gal bucket, etc.) lifted up, either propped on the top edge of the aquarium or on stilts.

My planned aquarium with a sump was smaller (29gal aquarium, 10gal sump) but i found that the ~23lb kitty litter pail fits nicely into a 10gal tank, with the tank edge supporting it up off the bottom of the aquarium. I was planning to put one of those, a heater, and a return pump in my 10 gallon sump and just go with that. Replace or clean the prefilter periodically and you should be good to go... The more often you deal with the prefilter the lower your nitrates should be come water change time, but depending on the effectiveness of your refugium/plant filter you can just do nitrate tests and find a maintenance interval that works well for you.

-Rick (the armchair aquarist, who points out that he hasn't actually built one of these yet, since his project got rudely interrupted by a layoff followed by a cross-country move)


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Thanks Rick for all your input.
I dont have cats, but I did see this thread where a person made one out of a 5 gallon bucket, I was just worried about the flow coming in to strong. I guess maybe I should put a couple of ball joints on the overflow.


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

gusto said:


> Thanks Rick for all your input.
> I dont have cats, but I did see this thread where a person made one out of a 5 gallon bucket, I was just worried about the flow coming in to strong. I guess maybe I should put a couple of ball joints on the overflow.


I wouldn't restrict the flow coming out of the overflow... the amount of water coming out of the tank is going to be determined by your return pump, not your overflow (the overflow just puts a cap on how much you can get out... if you exceed that with your pump then be prepared for water on the floor!). What kind of gph are you expecting from your return pump?

-Rick (the armchair aquarist)


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Thank you Rick for all your help and sorry for the delay, just been trying to sell everything from my saltwater tank and design this one at the same time. My return pump is 900 GPH. I was going to try and set it up like this what do you think.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... highlight=

Thanks Gus


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