Alaska_Phil
Sump thing Happened
by
, 05-19-2010 at 10:02 PM (3488 Views)
At long last my tank has a sump!
the sump is a 20 tall tank, with 3 baffles forming a bubble trap. This gives me a 2 section sump, equipment and return. I'm not planning to use this for a refugium. My original plan was to add a refugium as a separate tank above the sump, but now I think I'll try a turf scrubber first and see if that does the trick. Now for pictures.
First I mocked up the system in the shop using an old 29 gal and stand. It ran like this for several days while I convinced myself that nothing would leak and that it would always restart reliably.
The drain on the overflow was pretty noisy and and since I try to keep the Admin staff at the front desk (my tank is in the lobby) happy, I made this little silencer for it. I'm still getting it tuned, but it made huge difference. Now the water pouring into the overflow box in the tank is noisier than the drain.
Since my cheap commercial stand doesn't have room for anything, and the powers that be at work seem to think exposed bucket, jugs and plumbing look unprofessional....Introducing the equipment cabinet!!! Seriously though, this has proved to be the next best thing to a dedicated equipment room. Note the top off jug on the second shelf. Next project is to reinforce that second shelf.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera when I installed the sump, so no progress pictures.But here's the final result. I made a horizontal slotted pipe for the drain inlet to the sump. I came out just a little deeper in the water than I intended, but seems to be working just fine. Equipment includes my old backpak skimmer in front, a two little fishies reactor in back, with phosban in it, and the heater lying on the bottom. The return pump is one of the new maxi-jet 1800's connected with 3/4" tubing to the 3/4" PVC return.
Overflow box doing it's thing
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