Sump Design Advice

[wscttwolfe]

Thinking about adding a sump to my RSM 130D. My main goals are to (1) add water volume, (2) add refugium for macro algae nutrient removal/filtration, and (3) hold my Ro/DI water instead of my ugly bright orange home depot bucket. I would also be able to use a more powerful skimmer.

I'd like to hear you thoughts on this design. Thanks!

Sump Design V1 by wscttwolfe, on Flickr

 

[Snid]

I guess that design is sound, though I'm not clearly understanding how your RODI top off will work exactly. Will the filter socks be easy to reach behind the RODI?

 

[r2d2]

Hi, try lo leave return section as large as you can, that is where evaporation occurs and water level will drop very quick, also you need enough room to handle return pump. Also not sure about skimmer and return pump in same compartment you may have air bubbles into main tank.
Greetings

 

[DaveK]

You have several problems with your design.

Don't put the RO/DI reserve in the sum. Not ever. It's way too easy to have a baffle fail and dump all the FW into your system, all at once. It will also make for much more difficult construction to keep it all water tight. Use a separate container for your RO/DI water. It may need to be large. My 125 gal reef can evaporate up to 2 buckets of water per day in winter.

The skimmer is in the wrong place. It should come after the filter socks, since you want it removing waste products before the water goes to the refugium. Otherwise the refugium will become a massive dirt trap.

As pointed out by r2d2, the return areas is much too small, for the reasons he stated. Typically you want to return area to bae about 1/3 or more of the sump/refugium.

Depending upon what your trying to do with the refugium, upi may wish to place it at one end of the sump, and put the return section in the middle. Then frrd the refugium with water from the return pump. You'll need a little larger return pump and some valves to do this.

Optionally, you can drain your tank directly into the filter socks, as long as you can still easily change them.

 

[reefer gladness]

The RSM 130D was my first tank and I also added an external sump with similar goals in mind and wouldn't do it again. The two main reasons why:

1. The RSM tank already has a sump chamber and matching flow between two sumps is a royal pain. I could NEVER get the overflow to stay quiet more than a day or two without micro-adjustments.

2. There simply isn't enough room in that cabinet space to do everything you listed.

IMO, if you're going to add a sump to a tank this sized go with either a simple berlin setup and a large protein skimmer, or go refugium only in the sump and leave the skimmer in the back of the RSM. There simply isn't enough room to fit everything you want in that cabinet space.

Here's a link to the Aqueon sump I had in my 130D: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23752

The Model 1 sump just barely fits in the cabinet with enough room to hang a Turboflotor Blue 500 protein skimmer on the side. The pre-filter box from Lifereef, the sump, skimmer and return pump cost me over $500 and at the end of the day it didn't perform as well as a drilled tank would have for a fraction of the cost.

 

[wscttwolfe]

thanks all -

probably not going to do sump in retrospect. it defeats the purpose of the whole RSM design. Better to save money for a larger setup when I have more space...

But this:

The skimmer is in the wrong place. It should come after the filter socks, since you want it removing waste products before the water goes to the refugium. Otherwise the refugium will become a massive dirt trap.

seems weird to me... even with a skimmer before the refugium, the skimmer is only going to "clean" a tiny fraction of the water passing thru at any point in time anyway...

 

[DaveK]

...
seems weird to me... even with a skimmer before the refugium, the skimmer is only going to "clean" a tiny fraction of the water passing thru at any point in time anyway...

A typical skimmer as used on a reef system will remove a tremendous amount of stuff. A typical single overflow from a display tank can handle about 600 gph. A double overflow, about twice that. Using a pump on the skimmer that is about that flow rate will easily process almost all the water going through the sump. This flow rate is not at all unusual to get with a skimmer.

 

[Snid]

Next to water changes, skimming is the most effective way to clean a tank's water. It removes organic impurities of all types and isn't selective, unlike biological filtration, which only consumes what it likes.

 

[david42]

This is some of what a good skimmer takes from your water.

 

[Snid]

You sure that's not truck stop coffee? Looks the same to me.

 

[david42]

You sure that's not truck stop coffee? Looks the same to me.

Truck stop coffee. I like it when it tastes "burnt"