New to saltwater, sump design help

[Reinboordt]

Howdy everyone,

I am planning my transition from freshwater to saltwater over the next few months and I need some help designing my sump. The aquarium is 67.5 gallons, like a tall 55g.

I have kept a reef with my dad when I was a teenager and helped him set it all up, that was 15 years ago and I’ve never used a sump for anything other than freshwater.
The aquarium is currently a planted aquarium.

Below is an illustration of the roughly 30gallon sump

I currently have a 2 drain set up, one in full syphon with an adjustable valve and the other is adjustable but serves as an overflow.

The sump consists of glass baffles in the above design and contains 4 chambers.

1. Unsure what should be in here, it fills right to the top

2. Rock rubble? Porous block? Right now it has plastic scrubbies and ceramic media.

3. This is the obvious choice for the protein skimmer 7”x9x footprint

4. This is the return pump chamber, the level here is where I top up the system for evap.

Could anyone please suggest an optimal sump set up for my design? What options do I have for media and where should it go?

I’ll make other threads to select the skimmer and cycle, aquascape etc but I’m mainly concerned with planning the dump right now.

Thanks in advance!

 

[TX_REEF]

Howdy everyone,

I am planning my transition from freshwater to saltwater over the next few months and I need some help designing my sump. The aquarium is 67.5 gallons, like a tall 55g.

I have kept a reef with my dad when I was a teenager and helped him set it all up, that was 15 years ago and I’ve never used a sump for anything other than freshwater.
The aquarium is currently a planted aquarium.

Below is an illustration of the roughly 30gallon sump

I currently have a 2 drain set up, one in full syphon with an adjustable valve and the other is adjustable but serves as an overflow.

The sump consists of glass baffles in the above design and contains 4 chambers.

1. Unsure what should be in here, it fills right to the top

2. Rock rubble? Porous block? Right now it has plastic scrubbies and ceramic media.

3. This is the obvious choice for the protein skimmer 7”x9x footprint

4. This is the return pump chamber, the level here is where I top up the system for evap.

Could anyone please suggest an optimal sump set up for my design? What options do I have for media and where should it go?

I’ll make other threads to select the skimmer and cycle, aquascape etc but I’m mainly concerned with planning the dump right now.

Thanks in advance!

You generally do not want a “waterfall” like you have going from chamber 1 to 2, this will be noisy. I’d recommend you have mechanical filtration in your first chamber, whether that be a filter sock, fleece roller or filter floss. 2nd and third chambers can be whatever you want, really. You can have a refugium, rock for bio filter, or skimmer. For your last chamber, you will probably want another bubble trap to prevent both bubbles and detritus from getting sucked into the return pump. If you are so inclined, check out my build thread. I have a super simple 3-chamber sump and my entire system is DIY. Best of luck and feel free to ask any specific questions that come up!

 

[Reinboordt]

Firstly thanks for responding, I couldn’t really find a basic how to make a saltwater sump guide anywhere. I’m looking to essentially convert my existing sump into one that would work for softies and fish, a basic budget friendly beginner set up.

I forgot to say, when I kept saltwater aquaria as a teen it was with a built in filter. It was also in Europe so I’m not familiar with many of the brands or products here in North America. I’ve been strictly freshwater for about 15 years now.

I went through your whole thread, your set up looks great! It’s nice to visually see an example. Is the mangrove going in the frag level when it grows taller? Or to your other display tank?

The sump came already in that configuration and I’ve had it for about 10 years now, it was originally a single gurgling drain before I created the 2 pipe system.

For the bubble trap that you mentioned, is that the sponge looking type product you used in your build before the return pump?

Sorry if I sound stupid, my only experiences with sumps have been stuff it full of various sponge pads and ceramic media to maximize effectiveness in a freshwater environment. I also keep my heater down there

 

[Reinboordt]

I figure an illustration would work better than words, after reviewing the above information I’m thinking of this spec:

I have a few questions, A through E.

chamber 1.
Filter sock, mechanical filtration
A - this space originally had spherical media that tumbled around, it never worked consistently so I just placed plastic scrubbies in there. What would work well for this space? It becomes agitated and water will move over it but not necessarily through it.

Chamber 2.
B: Water flows over and there is a shelf in there that could hold a sheet of something to remove particles, phosphates etc or possibly a bio brick to increase surface area, water will flow through here.

C: Then into rock rubble / media for biological filtration

D: option in this baffle to place activated carbon or something else, or leave it clear

Chamber 3
E. Protein skimmer, can sit on bio bricks or such if needed to increase height.
There’s another baffle here that creates the minimum water level for chamber 4.

Chamber 4
Heater will be laying down low sideways as there is a small 2” section that runs behind chamber 3 as an overflow.
There will be a DC pump in this chamber that I can use with the gate valve above the filter sock to control the flow from either end.

any issues with this set up? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks!