Jonathan Gonzales Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 Hi I am currently doing research before I start my first reef. I have 20 gal long that I am wanting to start with, and I am wondering about sumps. I am finding that having one is always better but not really needed. i am wanting to see what everyone's thoughts on having one for a 20 gal and how to get one for that size of a tank (10 gals?). All feedback will be appreciated and if anyone knows or has a sump that small let me know. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FluxCapacitor Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 The more you can increase the water volume the better. If you have a 20G and you add a 20G sump on then you essentially have 40G worth of water in your system. This helps with things like salinity swings or any kind of spike in general. Larger volumes are going to be less succeptable to "flash pan" problems that affect smaller tanks so quickly. So, my amateur advice for you is, yes add a sump to your nano but take the time to plan it properly. I'm doing something similar to my 12G nano here soon. My idea is to leave all the baffling of the stock acrylic tank in place and drill a double overflow in the back of it where the pump sits now. This will allow for a backup overflow should the lower one ever become clogged. You can find examples online. I am then going to overflow that water into a tank that sits lower and use a power head in the sump to plumb back to the original water outlet in the acrylic aquarium. I'm going to baffle the sump and set it up to have the largest refugium area as possible so that I can put other filtering animals in there and supplement the display tank. I don't want to waste all that water space on some ugly silicon boogered up sump that I built myself. In any case, I think your idea is good and you should do it. Go as large as you can on your sump because you can always use it to be a sump for more than one tank if you plan ahead for it properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman cole Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 A sump is the way to go i have a 20g tall with a 10g sump it has 3 3/4 over flows i found out i relly onley need 2 one as a over flow and one as a back up and a 1/2 return the sump has 4in drawstring filter sock on my drain pipe and a hydor slim skim Nano protein skimmer 100w Cobalt neotherm heater lifeguard 317 return pump 5in by 8in refugium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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