Can I add an extra sump?

ylmaya · 05-03-2003, 12:54 PM

I just had an epiphony - I realized that the closet in my daughter's room is exactly behind my new tank. My sump (the Kent Bio-Rocker) and skimmer (Kent Nautilus) will go directly under the tank. Now...can I put a huge rubbermade garbage can covered but full of salt water in the closet and plumb it into the system through the wall? Is it ok to cover the can?

My thoughts are that having an extra 50 or so gallons added to the 65G system I am setting up will definitely help to control the heat issues from my PC lighting in a closed cabinet, as well as make all the water chemistry more stable...

Thoughts please?

Doug1 · 05-03-2003, 01:37 PM

The extra water volume will be nice, but it wont neccessarily address the heat issue unless its set up so that its either in close proximety to an AC outlet or its an open design with a fan to increase evaporation. With a decent design on canopy to vent heat it shouldn't be too bad, esp if you have decent AC. Otherwise you might need to add a chiller, which is going to cost lots to buy and run, plus need to be somewhere it can dump heat as well as noise issues. HTH

Geoff · 05-03-2003, 03:18 PM

i would go for it. you could put growout tanks, remote sand beds, mangrove beds, or even a setteling tank. the options are there. make a shelf and do several of them. i think that low and wide tanks would be better than a tall container. this is how some systems have several times more volume in the external tanks than in the main display.

G~

ToeCutter · 05-03-2003, 03:29 PM

That's just what I did. I piped thru the wall and added a second (covered) sump in my closet.

It did make the tank a bit cooler, because the closet is cooler than the fish room with the MH lights, etc.

Doug1 · 05-03-2003, 04:23 PM

Is the closet in daughters room being used as a closet, ie clothes,etc storage, moisture may be an issue as well

ToeCutter · 05-03-2003, 04:50 PM

ylmaya mentioned covering the can. Moisture is the reason I keep my closet sump completely covered, too.

icebear · 05-03-2003, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ToeCutter
ylmaya mentioned covering the can. Moisture is the reason I keep my closet sump completely covered, too.

if it is covered, would you lose some/most of the benefits of heat dispersion?

ToeCutter · 05-03-2003, 09:31 PM

It would disperse more heat if I left it open, for sure. I mainly wanted to add water volume to the system. Even covered, it does have a cooling effect.

Buzz_Hog · 05-03-2003, 09:41 PM

your poor daughter.....

Doug1 · 05-03-2003, 10:19 PM

OK granted you will derive some increased stability by adding more volume to the system, but with a sump, you really should have an auto top off setup. While the icreased volume is nice the real advantage I feel is in increased air/water interface area, increasing outgassing of CO2 and increasing dissloved O2 levels, as well as the evaporative thermodynamic happening.
Then again having your daughters clothes attacked by mildew, and growing Nori is not a good thing

ylmaya · 05-03-2003, 11:24 PM

Hi Again - OK Here are some answers...

1. - the daughter is 7, there is another closet in this room and both of them are used mostly for junk storage. Her clothes etc. are kept in her dressers so I can pretty much clean out this closet as a "fish room exclusive".

2. - The idea was to use a pretty tall rubbermade garbage can (I think the big ones hold over 100 gallons) and then only fill it about 50 Gallons worth. I would cover it but maybe cut one or two vents in the top sides....that way even though it was covered there would be a nice pocket of air in there to aid in cooling and also gas exchange for this water.

This should work ok or no?