[superwizbang]

Hey Crew!

Long time no talk. Work has kept me busy. Enough of all the small talk though.

I am going to have an acrylic sump built. It will be based on the UHF Pro 48 Reef Sumpfound on the middle of the page. I have the same ETSS skimmer you see attched to it. I was thinking of making the middle area a small refugium and having the baffles pushed out a bit. I will put live rock in this area to add more biofiltration to my rig. The rest of the setup will be the same. The dimensions work for what I have in my cabinet.

Anyone have any ideas that might build into this design which might work better? Do you think I am just wasting my time trying to throw some rock rubble in the middle? Any ideas you have are welcome!

Thanks guys!

-Ken

 

[VWD]

I'm not going to add anything here about the Sump,


Just want to Say hi and good to See you posting Ken.

 

[ChrisPrusha]

Your sump ideas sound like good ones to me!

 

[cath]

OK, I'm cheesy route, too. I just wanted to say hi! Good to see you again

 

[Tim224DT]

Welcome back.

Tim

 

[seshapir]

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for but I just went through a big ordeal with the sump I ordered. In the end I had to design it down to the last inch....Here's a picture of the plans and the final sump/fuge, the pic of the sump is before we put the rubble, and light on it. It's working out really well so far and no micro bubbles in the main display. The sump design has all my notes that I left for the builder...BTW this is a glass sump with an ASM G3 skimmer.

 

[tdwyatt]

Hi Ken!

I am a believer in mostly empty sumps, so no comment from me; it will depend on what you want in your tank.


what DO you want in your tank???

 

[leveldrummer]

hi and ill throw in some ideas, the main idea is, your going to get mixed opinions about the fuge in the middle, alot of people think you dont need it, but if you want it, i say go for it, depending on the flow across the tank, you might have to much flow for a good fuge, you might want to think about putting the inlet in the center, have the fuge to the left, and the return to the right, have the baffle for the return higher than the one for the fuge, and cut a small piece of light defuser (egg crate) to put in too, you can throw a small light down there and put some macro algae in it to help with nitrates too, there are many things to do, its just a matter of what you really want, the way its running now looks great too, so.... any other questions?

 

[superwizbang]

Thanks for the great words my friends! Thanks for the plans and the photos Sara. I am studying them well.

I currently have a sump with an Iwaki 40 returning water at about 1/2 open. It's a converted 29g with baffles making three chambers. I have some cheato in there and it is not doing so well because I really don't have it well lit. To say, it has actually lost a bit of it's size from last fall...not because of nitrates but just lighting.

The whole reason I am building a new sump is to properly incorporate the Iwaki into my new down-draft ETSS skimmer (on the right of the pix). Building a new acrylic keeps me from drilling the old sump and allows me to set it up however I like (and maybe drill it myself later if I ever get off my butt and exchange my DIY kalk reactor with a calcium reactor). I like the way the bulkheads are arranged but not sure what I want to do with the "innerds".

I am actually torn as to whether live rock in there will do any good. I am a bit on the fence, but leaning towards what Tom is saying about an empty sump. This whizzy skimmer is rated for a rig three times my size so I am sure export will be a non-issue soon (over my superskimmer). Hopefully it will be a little quieter than my old MR2 that I sold which was too big, but I digress.

Hopefully this explains matters a bit more.

-K

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

Hi Ken!! :wavey:

 

[dobejazz]

Hi Ken Welcome back!
























How bout some pics? LOL

 

[wharyat]

Welcome back Ken. :wavey:

I like an empty sump too.

 

[superwizbang]

Kelli, you are insatiable. Ha! I'll get some pix up when I get home and get the new sump in. Not a whole lot has changed except everything is getting much bigger. Lol!

-K

 

[motorslave]

Hi and welcome back! One thing to consider is that with the rock in there it will be hard to clean. Detritus will collect and decay if not removed. And for a true fuge, slow flow gives contact time for it to do its thing!

Robert

 

[superwizbang]

I think I have decided on an empty sump. Thanks all!

-K