Whats the purpose of the sump?

[clamm]

Guys, what is a sump, whats its purpose, are they easy to build? please help. im intereseted in setting one up for by 46 gallon tank.

 

[Anonymous]

They are for people who can read the forum description before they post.

 

[Anonymous]

Guys, what is a sump, whats its purpose, are they easy to build? please help. im intereseted in setting one up for by 46 gallon tank.

Post this in the "General Reefkeeping". This Sump area here is dominated by left-winged thoughts with twisted right-winged ideas. :wink:


...in answer to your question though, it's an area where you can place more LR, perhaps a skimmer, and allows you to put appliances (like a heater) out of site, and under the tank. It also allows for having more volume in water, etc.
HTHs,

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Good question. I think the sump is a virtual bar for insane people. I monitor their activities and report back to Mr. Ashcroft, head of the gestapo!

 

[Anonymous]

A sump is just some kind of holding area for water. In the hobby it can just be a spare tank, a heavy duty plastic container, or anything else that'll hold a large volume of water.

 

[Anonymous]

Guys, what is a sump, whats its purpose, are they easy to build? please help. im intereseted in setting one up for by 46 gallon tank.

This thread should get moved to a better forum for the question.

The Sump forum is an off topic discussion area.

A sump makes the overall volume of the system bigger and it gives you a place to hide a bunch of equipment. They are pretty easy to set up, but we would need to know more about your tank to give useful advice.

 

[Len]

I've moved this thread to the General Reef Discussion.

The forum "The Sump" is for our members to discuss off-topic, non-reef related topics I know the name of the forum can be a little misleading.

 

[clamm]

OK, GO BUSH!

 

[Len]

:lol:

Well, the thread is out of The Sump now, so no more politics please

 

[clamm]

ok its a reef tank 46GALLON BOW FRONT. about 40lbs live rock, 30 -40 LBS livesand. FALSE P. CLOWNFISH, STAR ANONOME, LONG TENT ANONOME, PURPLE TIP ANONOME OF SOME SORT. 150W DE MH 13k, 2X30W ACTINICS. 1 CPR BACKPK AND 1 PRISIM DELUXE SKIMMER. MAG350 FOR SOME WATER MOVEMENT AS WELL AS A A POWERHEAD FOR SOME MOVEMENT. 300W HEATER. THATS ABOUT IT.

WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR SUMP.

 

[Anonymous]

It's still HEEEEEERRRRRRREEEEEEE!


Kinda an interesting unintentional philosophical question, tho, doncha think?

 

[Anonymous]

ok its a reef tank 46GALLON BOW FRONT. about 40lbs live rock, 30 -40 LBS livesand. FALSE P. CLOWNFISH, STAR ANONOME, LONG TENT ANONOME, PURPLE TIP ANONOME OF SOME SORT. 150W DE MH 13k, 2X30W ACTINICS. 1 CPR BACKPK AND 1 PRISIM DELUXE SKIMMER. MAG350 FOR SOME WATER MOVEMENT AS WELL AS A A POWERHEAD FOR SOME MOVEMENT. 300W HEATER. THATS ABOUT IT.

WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR SUMP.

I would go as big as I could fit under the tank or out of sight.

 

[tazdevil]

I think a 20 gallon long or a 30 gallon would suit that tank fine. 20 gallong long may fit better, plus being the "long" version, it'll give you more room to work with to put the skimmer,heater, pumps etc in.

 

[clamm]

how does the water get into the tank and back into the sump...and if the sump is below the tank and the pump fails wouldnt that overflow everything?

 

[tazdevil]

Using an overflow if the tank is not pre-drilled. The overflow or pridrilled overflow designs pull the water from the top of the tank, and in the case of a power failure, the level drops below this point, shutting off the siphon down below so an overflow won't happen. Important to keep a balance of water capacity left in the sump with tank volume so that in a loss of pump or power failure situation, the water level in the sump rises only to what it can handle.

 

[Tackett]

yes but keep an eye on your return line (thats the line that runs from the water pump placed in your sump back to the main tank.) If you are not careful water can backsiphon from your return line in the event of a powerfailure due to the efect of something that crazy issac newton guy figured out and flood you. So make sure that your return line is only right below the water surface and kinda turned down. Here, look up this line on google "plumb a wet-dry filter" or something of the like. Most wet-drys have a sump built into them and will be the same basic concept.

 

[clamm]

Ok so what is another possible solution so I dont have to tear down/drain the tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Ok so what is another possible solution so I dont have to tear down/drain the tank?

drill a small hole just below the waterline in the return plumbing preferable slightly greater than a 1/4 inch. just below so it doesnt spray water out, but close to the top so you don't siphon more than a couple of gallons

 

[Anonymous]

yes but keep an eye on your return line (thats the line that runs from the water pump placed in your sump back to the main tank.) If you are not careful water can backsiphon from your return line in the event of a powerfailure due to the efect of something that crazy issac newton guy figured out and flood you. So make sure that your return line is only right below the water surface and kinda turned down. Here, look up this line on google "plumb a wet-dry filter" or something of the like. Most wet-drys have a sump built into them and will be the same basic concept.

Just to add to this... add a drilled pin hole just below or at the surface (make sure the water squirts into the tank and not up at the lights) to break the reverse siphon. When done right, it works like a charm.

~wings~

 

[Tackett]

AHH genius. Im going to go home after work today and do just that.