Thanks to MUCH help in my Reef Talk thread about my sump... here is the final design. Figured I'd start a thread here in the proper place in hopes of maybe helping out other newbies like myself.

-- Description --
sump is 30g glass tank. 36"L x 12"W x 18" H

overflow tube from main tank comes down into a "T" and has a ball valve on both sides. 75% goes to chamber 1 (skimmer). Sump sucks it up and spits it back to same chamber. Chamber 1 fills up and goes through the 1" bubble traps to help stop microbubbles and then it spills into chamber 2 and then gets shot up to main tank.

On other side of "T" the other 25% goes slowly to chamber 3, the Fuge. Fuge is 14" high and fills up and flows into chamber 2 as well which allows some pods or whatever creatures grow in Fuge to get into chamber 2 and immediately sent up Return Pump to main tank to feed fish. This eliminates the pods from going thru skimmer. The Fuge will have 5" sand bed with some LR rubble... then some Chaeto algae to help eat up some nitrates/phosphates.

This image has all the dimensions in case your wondering. Don't be jealous of my photoshop skillsrockon!!


I'll post more this weekend once it's all done... if you see a problem let me know asap since this is my first DIY

[fulinn]

Chief,

I like your final design and the photo helps alot with the pictures and all. I think you've done a fine job in gathering information and putting it to practicle use.

I look forward to more pics !

Bonnie

[Cobraz]

Chief,

I like what you have done, but have to ask why you would not want to have the water flow over the Fuge first then skim and then back to tank...

The reason I ask, for thought... only... you are dividing the water and returning dirty water to the display with out skimming or running over fuge... depending on which way it enters.

well, the Fuge is only getting 25% of overflow so it's only throwing a little dirty water back from the Fuge. The main reason I guess is so the pods don't get skimmed before getting sent to the main tank to feed the fish.
eventually that water will go to the 75% section and get skimmed over time.
I'm just a newbie though so I'm just going by what I was suggested (mainly by AquaDiva and by Melevsreef's site on Sump F design).

[Aquadiva]

Chief, the one problem I see is in the plumbing, not the sump itself. the way you have it configured, the water comes from the tank and hits that T, then goes left and right. When the water hits the T, it is going to cause back-pressure on the water trying to exit the tank. If this were a RR setup, you would wind up with the "toilet flushing" scenario. I believe you are using an overflow, but I am not sure this wouldn't cause a similar problem. If you look at the rediculous drawing I did before, you will notice that there is a direct drop from the tank to the skimmer compartment. There is a T and then a ballhead going to the fuge. You can adjust the flow to the fuge with the one ballhead. In fact, you can stop the flow to the fuge all together. I did this once to treat for flatworms that were only in the fuge.

Scott and Jerry are also have a valid point about the flow through the sump. I am partial to this method because:

1. the flow through the fuge is easily managed
2. unskimmed water goes to the fuge to "feed" the little critters
3. you can put a sock on the drain into the skimmer very easily
4. You won't get too much detris build up in the fuge if the critters can't keep up.

Like I said before...there are many ways to design a sump. since you kinda settled on this design, I am just helping ya along and such.

Linda. here is your design from other thread for those to follow along easy.

the reason i changed this and from the sounds of it was a bad idea, was because I didn't understand if the overflow is coming straight down into chamber 1 with a T in there sideways... how is water going to the right if there's no ball valve on that straight drop on the left? wouldn't the water just go straight down into chamber 1 since nothing is interrupting the flow?

I know nothing about plumbing obviously so please explain your method. BTW, my overflow box is on the Right side of tank. but I can just turn the whole sump around so it's 3, 2, 1 with same setup

[Aquadiva]

OK, first thank you soooooooo much for posting my finger painting plumbing again. It was embarrassing enough the first time.

secondly, you are correct. When I had this configuration before, I used one of these:

http://www.flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=PVC-Wyes

I wasn't to thrilled with that, though, as I could only get so much flow to the fuge. I don't have this configuration anymore, as I went to a dedicated fuge and rubbermaid sump, but I was going to put a true "y" in place of the T. You still only need a ball valve on the pipe to the fuge.

Other methods. You could come straight down from the tank, place a 45 degree fitting, then the T, then another 45 degree fitting. The slight angle would allow gravity to force water into the T and utimately to the fuge.

Also, you could go with flex tubing and just let the pipe curve. I keep telling you there is an infinite number of ways to do this.

Hope this all makes sense

don't be ashamed to have your quality drawing here... (like mine was much better). haha

as far as MY drawing at top with the "T" and 2 ball valves... is that definitely NOT going to work? even if i have the ball valves as close to the "T" as possible so water flows to both sides immediately? My father doesn't see why it won't work, but what do we know

I'm afraid of only using 1 ball valve because if water drops down and hits the "T" and decides to go to the side with no ball valve there's nothing stopping the flow to make it back up enough to go to the other side. I'm sure some would still hit the T and go to both sides, but like you said it might want to backwash and come back up the tube? I don't think that would happen. I mean the overflow isn't sending that much water down in the first place. it's not like a gushing flow... but what do i know

right now on my tank I have a flexible tube coming from my overflow to my wet/dry if that helps at all. I just glued the acrylic to the sump today with Silicone I because they didn't have any Silicone II that was "CLEAR". hope it works. I'm not feeling too lucky anyways with it but we'll see.

I guess we gotta decide on a design for the plumbing that will work in the next day or two so i can begin on that. tomorrow night i'll test the baffles to see if they hold fresh tap water.

(so close, but yet so far away)

[Aquadiva]

Chief,

Try it. It may work. I am 90 percent sure that with a RR tank it would cause a flushing effect. With an overflow box, it may not. I've never done this with an overflow box.

Here's the one place that it is not too crucial. Why? PVC is CHEAP. It shouldn't take you more than $20 bucks in PVC for the entire set-up. You could screw it up totally and rip the entire PVC plumbing thing apart for less money than you would spend on a frag.

Give it a go. Like the saying goes..."JUST DO IT"

BTW... did anyone mention that one of these is good to put on after the return pump, so it is easy to get off when it needs servicing.

http://www.flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cg...uct=PVC-Unions

You can find them at HD or Lowes, too.

true true. worst case is I create a little flood, piss the wife off... and go back to the drawing board (or dog house)

quick update... I tested my acrylic baffles tonight that I glued with Silicon I (no bioseal label)... filled the whole tank up with water and they all held fine. PHEW...

BUT (you knew that was coming) the baffle on the right that is 14" tall for the Fuge was bending a little. I think it had to do with I didn't shave enough off the width of baffle cuz I wanted a tight squeeze before I glued it... and that led to more bending with water. It was holding all the water fine but I'm taking that 1 baffle off and getting a thicker piece just in case.
I'm going to get 1/4" thickness like Linda hinted to do in first place but I already had it cut... the other 3 baffles on the left (bubble trap) are 3/32" thick and they held the water fine as well without much bending at all so I'll keep those.

looks like Saturday is the big day of testing water again and then the actual plumbing. hopefully I can get it all working so I can get some free chaeto at meeting. stay tuned for the upcoming disaster. lol

[Aquadiva]

glad to see this is moving along.

BTW... don't forget to add pics. excellent435667

darnit... i forgot to take a pic of it bent. i already took the baffle off. I'll take some sat. when i fill it up again

Ok. Sump is finally done and is working just like planned. (After MANY learned lessons along the way). I only used 1 ball valve instead of 2 like originally planned. I updated the 1st pick in this thread to match exactly the way it came out.

i'll now include tons of images as a reference in case anyone is interested

Here's my 36" long sump with my quality silicone job. ya that's right... I globbed it on because 3 of my baffles are 3/32" thick so I wanted to make sure there was enough silicone to seal it. I'm silly like that... plus they say beauty is not on the outside, but what's inside that counts. right? I changed out the 15" Fuge baffle on right to 1/4" thickness to make sure it could hold everything. I used Silicon I with NO "bioseal" label like most everything Silicone II.

Lesson Learned:
- the 3 baffle bubble trap is nice, but a beeeatch to put silicone on.
Lesson I'm going to Learn Soon:
- How am I getting that huge sump under my 75g tank, 48" long

time to do some prep work. I bought some 3/4" foam at HD for like $6 because I read you should put it under tank so help stop defects (vibrations, crackin?).
I cut it to fit under whole bottom of tank figuring it could catch any water spills on top and I could wipe it.




Big lesson learned after doing the foam:
- I then did some thinking and put my skimmer inside the sump and put the top on the skimmer... then I measured that height. 25.5" if I remember correctly... Then I measured under take with foam to top and guess how much it was. yep, 25.5". looks like that foam idea wasn't going to work since I wouldn't be able to unscrew the top and pull it out to clean.... so I had to pull it all out. doooh.

Well, now the scary part. How to get a 36" wide sump under my 48" tank. I was first planning on cutting out the front middle piece. Melevsreef.com really helped out with how to do all of this.
here's the initial plan based on marcs site

Makes sense I said. But then i did some more thinking... WHEN my sump is under my tank positioned nicely, how was I going to get my skimmer top off to clean again? After measuring, once again my Euroreef Skimmer kicks me in the bunghole because it wouldn't fit out the front of the tank once my new 36" wide sump was there. :strangle: so plan B... back to Marcs site for another idea.

I now MUST cut a hole in the side of my tank and slide my sump in. babyhammer


This had to be the scariest thing I've ever had to do. After punching myself in the face and asking why the heck am I doing this again, I started to imagine all the horrible things that could happen. I've got a 75g tank full of water and now I have to cut out basically the whole side and pray the tank stand doesn't cave. what a nightmare this could be. def. didn't plan on having to do this when i decided I wanted a Fuge. Anyways, you can tell I was a little worried so I just cut some spare wood and wedged it in the corners just to give it a little more support "just in case" and to help ease my mind.

Lesson learned:
- no matter how much you try to plan ahead, there will always be more that comes up. I was so worried about the plumbing before i even started this.

[Aquadiva]

OMG... I can't watch....

well, I told my wife "Jessie" to take our 5 month old daughter "Kaylie" and leave town because it's time to bring this house down. Instead they went upstairs to avoid the flood.

well, little did they know I worked my magic and cut the hole and the tank stayed up just as I hoped. thankyou!!!! Lord



With a little more shaving off the sides, the tank fit in perfectly and I slid that bad boy right in.

my Silicone job might not look pretty or even as effective as wiping most of it off... but the teeth I cut on the acrylic doesn't look too shabby for the tools I had... you can tell I started on the right and started getting lazier with the distance between teeth as you move to the right. haha.

Lesson I didn't have to learn because I'm just a freakin genius:
- put the skimmer inside the sump before you slide it in
you da man (oh why thank you Mr. Smiley dude)

you can see now how I have to bring the top of the skimmer in/out to clean. There's just barely enough room to come on the side of the sump and bring it down out of the side hole.

I've got a hole inch of room from the top of the skimmer to the roof... that's just silly, but that's what you get for buying a cheap tank from someone to use as a sump. no fear

[Marc Smith]

Hey is that Chief!!!!!