Sump Design

[Rick & Kenda]

I believe I have a good design for my sump. I thought about creating a "water bus" that can fill/empty any number of chambers, i.e. refugium, skimmer/reactor area, return, etc. In the drawing below I only have a single "bus" for bring the water into the sump and the return has its own chamber. Tale a look and tell me what you think.

[jestep]

That looks great. The back area would be really useful for organizing dosing lines, ph and temp probes, a heater along the bottom.

[Rick & Kenda]

I have also drawn up a double-bus design below. This allows me to control the flow rates to each chamber in the sump individually and none of the chambers interact with each other unless I want them to. The center chambers walls could be oriented so that they are separated from each other also.

[jestep]

I like the top design. I would run a mud substrate with macros, mainly chaeto, above it in the refugium. This knocks out 2 nitrate export mechanisms and both will benefit from the larger space.

[victoly]

You may want to try to work in a second reactor. Folks generally run two (carbon/GFO) is most common.

[Rick & Kenda]

My post here was to show the design basics. I know I can put any number of reactors and filter methods. I created this "bus system" so these chambers can be managed independently without sharing water, i.e. skimmer and refugium. The names of the chambers are just examples. Seems like I could actually use two chambers for a refugium and have one for LR and one for macro and mud. I could even setup one chamber as a wet/dry with bioballs. With this design, any number of independent chambers can be created and you're only limited by the size of your sump.

[victoly]

In practice, most reactors are going to be operated out of the sump and are mounted on the wall with just a pump powering them or come off of a manifold from the return pump.

[(Bio)³]

I wanted to do basically the same with my sump until I realized the areas were that big, after a lot of input from this forum and others I decided with a bunch of small chambers I didn't have any large enough to really do their job. And that was in my 75 gallon sump

[+SChrisEV]

I like the top design, but depending on how you plan your return I might simplify a but more, aka less chambers. I currently just use a 30g class with one baffle to separate my refugium from the rest. My overflow, skimmer, GFO and carbon reactors, and return pump all sit in one area (three pumps). I plan to move to a manifold design for a couple reasons, but the one pump will drive the skimmer, reactors and return. I do like the general overflow area, for heater, probes, dosing etc. It will be a constant level.

[Rick & Kenda]

I like the top design, but depending on how you plan your return I might simplify a but more, aka less chambers. I currently just use a 30g class with one baffle to separate my refugium from the rest. My overflow, skimmer, GFO and carbon reactors, and return pump all sit in one area (three pumps). I plan to move to a manifold design for a couple reasons, but the one pump will drive the skimmer, reactors and return. I do like the general overflow area, for heater, probes, dosing etc. It will be a constant level.

So imagine that in my second design, you could have just two chambers and the two bus lines. This would allow you to send water from the fuge straight to the tank without being skimmed, say for pods for food. The point isn't HOW many chambers this design allows for, it could be just two or ten, the point is being able to control from where the water comes into each chamber and from where it flows out of each chamber independently.

I see a lot of value in this separation. No?

[+SChrisEV]

For me... maybe. In your example for the pods, will (would) you use two pumps to return the water to the display tank? Will you use more than one pump to drive the skimmer and canisters? If yes, then I absolutely see the possible advantages that chambers bring.

On the other hand, If you are looking to use one larger pump and a manifold plan, then I don't see it so much. But hey I'm no sump expert.

[+SChrisEV]

I do still really like your first layout.

[julespinkyd]

I like the first design.. Thanks for posting this up. I am going to see if I can build something like it.

[Rick & Kenda]

I like the first design.. Thanks for posting this up. I am going to see if I can build something like it.

Let me know how it goes. I used a 20L for my sump but didn't do the "water bus" section. I didn't think the 20L was wide enough. Are you going to build from scratch out of acrylic or modify a glass tank?

[Planeden]

I like the first design.. Thanks for posting this up. I am going to see if I can build something like it.

Let me know how it goes. I used a 20L for my sump but didn't do the "water bus" section. I didn't think the 20L was wide enough. Are you going to build from scratch out of acrylic or modify a glass tank?

so, what did it end up looking like?