# DIY 38 Gal Sump Design - Review Assistance



## cichlidtim (Mar 10, 2016)

Hi All,

I was hoping some long time members could shed some expertise on a new sump design for my 125 Gallon tank. I have done a lot of reading and have purchased the tank, baffle material, aquarium safe silicone, mag pump, overflow box, and all other materials required to build.










Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, or any advice for modification before I proceed to cut the baffles and attach to the sump. I forgot to include some small space in the filter section for carbon media, but I will have it there somewhere as well.

Thanks! :dancing:

Tim


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## SrsSarcasM (Jan 28, 2016)

Are you committed to the refugium?

I don't think they are worth using and take up valuable space in your sump (although definitely worth using in a saltwater tank as the sump isn't used for much otherwise).

Low or high bio load? If low I guess it is ok, if high I would stick twice as much filter media in there and do more water changes. The refugium won't replace water changes, a small one like that won't do a lot at all, you will still need to do as many water changes the volume of each just might be a little less, but the time and effort in water changes is setting them up, not the volume of water removed.

"Proper" refugiums should be almost as big as the display tank.

If you're committed to nitrate removal I'd thoroughly recommend an algae scrubber over the refugium and pack media into the middle chamber too, then rearrange your second baffle to flow water from the bottom and not top.


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## cichlidtim (Mar 10, 2016)

Thank you for the reply!

Are you suggesting that the second baffle from the left be removed and instead of a refugium just have tumbler media with an algae scrubber? If that is the case I am all game.

The tank has a heavy bio load FYI.

I appreciate your feedback and any other feedback is definately welcome. This is my first sump so anything to assist would go a long way.

Tim


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## Off_register (Feb 5, 2015)

I would recommend switching the sizes of the refugium and mag return chambers. Aka. refugium is 7" and Mag chamber is 12.5". Place some carbon or the heater in the "Refugium" chamber. The water will evaporate out of the Mag chamber so having that bigger will prevent you from topping that off all the time. Also, the baffles look very high. What about the return of the water to the sump when the power is shut off? Unless you have check valves to prevent much water return, I would build the baffles lower. If not, the sump will flood.


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## jw85 (Dec 24, 2013)

It looks likely to flood unless you have done everything perfectly. There needs to be enough room to allow water to drain into it when your pump turns off.

My 2 cents: with a high bio-load, your mechanical filtration won't be good enough. I have 14 maturing haps (7-9 inches) in my 125, and 2 towers of bio media in my sump. The top of each chamber has a a 11x17 surface area. I use 200 micron sheets and they have to be changed every 3-4 days because they clog. You will have a much smaller area planned. You need to make sure you keep all the fish poop out of the bio media because it is very, very hard to clean out.

Your drip plate needs to be below your fine mechanical filtration, otherwise things might clog holes. Also, that setup will be very, very loud as water crashes into the drip plate. It also looks very likely to splash as it hits the plate. In my experience, going foam block then fine pad then plate works OK, but all the foam block will really do is reduce noise, but trust me you want that.

It is probably not a good idea to have the water level higher than your fine filter pad, you will get bypass as it clogs.

Honestly - one of my biggest issues I had with my setup (in a 55 gallon, 2 towers instead of 1, and no refugium) is that it actually worked too well at getting waste out of the tank - to the point I can't keep the sump clean to my standards. And as soon as you get bypass waste it's a mess to clean up.

I posted another design in this DIY forum not too long ago, as an update to my 55 galllm sump. It's far from perfect, but could be worth checking out. It's very simple.

Good luck - sumps are amazing.


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## SrsSarcasM (Jan 28, 2016)

One option is to remove the second baffle from the left and turning the middle section into either fixed media or tumbling media, your choice. Tumbling media requires a lot of air flow therefore will be noisy so take this into account if the sump is in a public area eg your living room. But tumbling media is much more effective so more suitable to heavy bioload.

A different approach to this, and this is what I've done in my sump, is to keep the second-to-the-left baffle (#2) there, remove baffle #3, and lower baffle #5. Then install a drip plate on top of the middle section and turn the middle section into a wet-dry. The top half of the media will be wet-dry and bottom half will be submerged. You can fill the wet-dry with pot scrubbers etc.

The intake piping should be submerged under water partially, around 1". Your current design looks like the water flows out of the outlet pipe and "splashes" all over the drip plate. This is no good. Suggest removing the drip plate entirely and lowering the outlet pipe so it is around 1" below the water level in the first chamber, and having the submerged media begin a couple inches below this.

While you're at it, super glue a plastic hook on to your outlet piping and hang filter socks on this (so sock is mostly submerged too). This will minimise sump maintenance provided you remove the sock, clean and replace weekly (eg have a few socks and rotate). Waste getting directly into your media isn't great and the foam will block and restrict flow pretty quickly.

As others have said, and I missed, your final chamber needs to be lowered greatly, preferably as low as possible (eg to a few inches above your pump). When you lose power to your pump, the amount of water in your display tank above your internal overflow weir + the water in the drain/return pipes + the amount of water in your display tank above your siphon break on your return line will all flow into your sump. You need to calculate this volume and ensure the void space (unused space) in your sump can handle this.


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## cichlidtim (Mar 10, 2016)

All of this advice has been extremely helpful. Thank you to everyone and I will let you know the progress.

Tim


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## cichlidtim (Mar 10, 2016)

Hi Guys,

After reviewing everything, I have come up with this plan, which should do all of the above mentioned. I may have some room for some algae growth or plans where the mag is located, and some additional media under the bio ball section. I have calculated the maximum amount of overflow required, and this would actually let me fill another 15 gallons or of additional water to the system as a buffer before succumbing to any overflow from a power outage (which is triple what would really occur if there was a power outage)

What do you think?


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## SrsSarcasM (Jan 28, 2016)

A whole section just for your heater seems unnecessary. Put it in your pump return chamber (or under bio media) and have it horizontal. You could make the 2nd chamber a bit bigger and make the return pump section a bit smaller, then use the 2nd chamber for upflow filter media.

In your first chamber you could put some more media under the foam. Also I would keep a dead zone under the foam/filter floss; the way you have it now, more water will preferentially flow through the foam/filter floss that is adjacent to the first baffle because it is the path of least resistance. Thus you will lose some effectiveness of the foam/filter floss. If you have a void zone below it of at least 1" then all flow should be equal through the foam/filter floss.

Is your biomedia going to be a wet/dry filter, eg with pot scourers?

Putting filter socks under your inlet pipes will make cleaning your sump a lot easier.

You may also consider drilling a hole in your sump in the pump chamber at your normal water level. I do this and use the "automatic drip system" water changer (put in around 1-2% total water volume per day and have the excess flow out of this drain).


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## FredTheFishHead (Jul 15, 2014)

With my sumps, I'm a big fan of filter socks being the first place the tank water goes. They catch most of the ditritus so you don't need to clean your sponges as often. Additionally, they can be washed weekly in you washing machine with just bleach and a second rinse. Buy 2 so you can swap them out.


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## joshmike (Apr 19, 2016)

i dont know, may be i have the problem with my browser, the is not loading in my browser ! do any one else have the same issue ?


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## joeyo (Jul 2, 2012)

Hey CichlidTim,

Can you please show your final in use sump design? I'm building one now from a 55g tank, and I really liked the last design and the feedback from the forum assisting you with the build.

Thanks, Joe


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