could this work?

[amateureefer]

i would like to get a DSB in my 55g and have been pondering the ways of doing it. i am currently considering putting it in a sump w/ the caulerpa that is in my tank. i have been doing some research on sumps and am still basically clueless, since i have no idea where or how u would buy/build an overflow box and return pump. my question is this: could i just use my fluval 304 (minus the canister) as a pump and return into my sump? e.g. could i just remove the cannister and place the moter housing directly into the sump?? this would save me huge amounts of work by eliminating the trouble of figuring out how to build the overflow and return pumps and whatever else would be needed to move the water from the display to the sump. if this did work, then couldnt i just buy a big container for under my tank, the southdown sand, a light, heater, and an extra powerhead and have a working sump easy as pie? please let me know if you think this could work, any problems this could cause, and anything else that you think is relevant. thnx very much yet again. dan

[Doug1]

Alas the canister filter is meant to run as just that
best bet is to get an Amiricle overflow box online, Anyone know who has them in stock?????????//
Then you need a return pump, Mag 5 should work, a Mag 7 with a ball valve would be better except the 7's seem to have had issues. The 5 may not provide enuff flow at whatever height you have to pump it to ensure enough velocity to keep bubbles out of the U-tube. A 700 gph should work out well tho the mag may be risky and the Rios are not recommended
Anything that holds water can be used as a sump but if you want to run a sand bed you need to be ablle to install divider to seperate the sand bed from the return pump

[Alice]

Hi Dan

You might want to do a search on "overflow" and "sump" here, you'll come up with a lot of reading material and pics of how folks have set up their systems.

If you have a glass tank and it doesn't have drilled overflows, you'll have to use the "j" or "u" tubes and an overflow box that will be plumbed down to the sump. If you have an acrylic tank, you can easily drill the holes for the overflow and just run a piece of 3/4" or 1" tubing down to whatever container you choose to use for a sump.

As for your Fluval, I believe the 304's are inline only, not submersible. They also only pump about 250-260 gallons of water per hour. Premium Aquatics, one of our sponsors, carries Magdrive pumps, the 950 might be a good choice at $70. They also carry Senn pumps and while the 700 might work, I'd go for the 900. They range between $70 and $80.

The pump I've been looking at though is a Custom Sea Life T-4 which turns over about 1,200 gph. I have a 125 though so you might look at the T-3 but it only turns over at 800 GPH. Rule of thumb is 10x the volume of your tank per hour but depending on your set up and animals, some people go higher or lower. SPS like high flow, softies and LPS can do lower flow.

Then of course, you can always add a pump for a closed loop...where the water just gets circulated through the tank and use another lower-rated pump to go through the sump. If you are going to set up macro algae and critters in the sump, you don't want the water flowing too hard through there.

HTH,

Alice

[amateureefer]

well, that is all very helpful, but the problem is that i do not have $200+ and the know-how to buy a $80 pump, overflow box, the pvc piping, the canister w/ a divider for the sand, etc. if there were a way to do this w/ the fluval, it would cost me absolutely nothing for the pumps, even if it only does 250 gph instead of the recommended 700gph. wouldnt this still be better than nothing? i'm trying to increase the biological filtration in my tank on my limited budget and figured if i had the fluval, y not at least put it to some use until i can afford to buy the "right equipment" (i.e. the pumps and overflow box) that it will make it run best. i just figure that if the fluval is already taking water out of the display into the canister, mixing it there, and returning it to the display, isn't this basically all that the pumps do for a sump, just without nearly as much efficiency? also, if the fluval motor was taking out 250 gph into a sump w/ a DSB and caulerpa and then returning it to the display, wouldn't the added water volume and the obvious nitrate removers in the sump be beneficial to the tank as a whole, even if it is not the ideal setup? again, any suggestions/comments are appreciated. dan

[Doug1]

The canister is designed to operate on the same level , not pump up higher than the intake for all practical purposes. If you put the intake in the sump and the output in the tank, I suspect that water would just trickle out, and you still have to get water to the sump from the main.
A straight siphon arrangement will work but theres no way to match the in/out flow, thats why the overflow boxes or builtin overflows are used, Water can only drain as far as the overflow then stops. They are self starting when the pump restarts. I know you want a cheap easy way to get it done, but this is it