20g sumps

[Geoff]

1/8" should be fine. there will equal pressure on both sides of the baffles when the sump is running properly. 1/4" would be better, but not by a big deal.

G~

[DevilBoy]

i was at Menards, and looking for the JB Weld 16, and i couldnt find it. they had 2 packages of JB one was for steel the other one was in a orange package. but neither one said it was JB Weld 16....

[Geoff]

you will not be able to find Weld-On 16 at a normal Home Destruction store. you will need to go to a plastics supply place.

Tapp Plastics will also carry it. www.tapplastics.com

G~

[DevilBoy]

i have 2 questions for you guys.... the first one being is it a bad idea to purchase a wavemaking device for my T3 pump on my closed loop?

my 2nd question is dealing with the titanium heaters....

if i buy one of these heaters....

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...ium.asp?CartId=


will i need to buy a controller like this?? i have heard the controllers are one of the best things you can buy for a reef tank.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113767

or does the that titanium heater already have a controller on it? or am i just in left field here, and getting things mixed up here?

[Geoff]

you should be able to run a wavemaking device on the T3. i would not have it switch on and off very often though. they are better left on for several hours. most external pumps are that way. what are you thinking of trying?

i am an Ebo Jager person, so do not know about them fancy Titanium heater thingies.

G~

[DevilBoy]

i was thinking of a wavemaker something like the Tsunami, or the one Reef Fanatic makes...

I was looking at the Melevs Reef website on how to make sumps. And some where in there i read about the weldon #16 is only used to attach acryllic to acryllic. Because it melts it together.

So Geoff if thats case and with my sump being a glass tank, could i use the silly cone? or just use the weldon?

[DevilBoy]

another dumb question....

i have to put a check valve somewhere so if my power goes out my sump will not overflow. Do i install this check valve on my drain plumbing coming from my overflow that leads into the sump?

[Geoff]

silly cone does not adhere well to acrylic long term. it will actually just fall off about 3 months down the line. it is kinda cool, in a funky way. you can still use sillycone to put in baffles though. you need to put an oversized bead all around the acrylic baffle. since the baffle is generally at equal pressure on both sides it does fine here.

do not use check valves. they clogg very quickly in the SW environment. they just do not work. when sizing a sump it is important to figure out how much back flow from the return the sump will need to handle when the power goes out.

G~

[DevilBoy]

Originally Posted by Geoff

do not use check valves. they clogg very quickly in the SW environment. they just do not work. when sizing a sump it is important to figure out how much back flow from the return the sump will need to handle when the power goes out.

G~

ok.. then how do i figure this out?

[Geoff]

for most tanks it really is not near the amount of water you think it is. most of the time it is only about 5g. any good sized sump compared to the main tank will be fine. as long as the sump is near half of the volume of the display you should be fine.

people run into problems with drain back when they have their returns to deep into the water. returns act like back siphons and can quickly pull more water than you think. most overflows pull very little. when the water level reaches the bottom of the weirs (teeth) they stop.

G~

[DevilBoy]

should you have a higher GPH pump on your skimmer , or a higher GPH for your return?

[Geoff]

the more through the skimmer the better. the return should be as close to the throughput of the skimmer as possible.

this generally means you need twice the pump on the skimmer as on the return. as in Mag 12 driven skimmer will only process about 6-700 gph. so a Mag 7 would be a good return pump. if you have a Mag 7 on the skimmer, you could use a Mag 5 on the return and not be to much over.

G~

[DevilBoy]

Geoff,
would it be alright if the skimmer pump and return pump are about rated the same?

[DevilBoy]

the reason i am asking, is because i was bidding on two T3s on ebay. and of course i didnt win them. i hardly ever win anything on that site. unless there is a great big buy it now in the listing...lol.

But anyways, I have my one T2 that i will use as a return pump. And i will be purchasing a Gen X PCX 30, and a Gen X PCX 40(mak4) and the PCX 30 is rated higher then the T2 but not much. So what should i do?

[Geoff]

you should be fine. it just means that the a smaller percentage of the water through the sump will not be processed by the skimmer. i perfer to have as much water processed by the skimmer as possible as it goes through the sump.

G~