Diy 3ft sump

Here is a sump for my 2m tank using my 3ft tank.
Any ideas on what power heads i can use to take water from tank and return to tank?
What is the best ceramic stuff to use?
Do i need to add any thing to the sump?

Steve

 

Power cut reservoir... Now that is a brilliant idea! I have never seen that till now.

 

That is a very good idea dude!
Kudos for that one!

 

I dont know yet:unsure:, was wondering if you guys had any suggestions?
and a better view so that you can see the righting

 

Thank you. Almost all the forums I have read about sumps have warned about overflow when a power cut has hit but none of them give a solution so I sat down one evening and designed this. Thanks again. Me now very happyarty:

 

if you use the correct overflow from the tank there can be no sump overflow if power is cut

 

Wito as I understand it you don't need any pump to get water out of the tank, only to get water back in the tank.

Basically you let enough water into the sump, so that when it pumps that water back into the tank it will overflow immediately, thus having water run down into the sump again completely a loop.

If you have a power failure, the water level should stop rising the moment the pump stops, and thus no overflow.

 

hmm true never thought of that. lol now i understand how the other sumps work. thank you Bugfree and Sauron

 

Overflow at the same height or as your return line/s. Power off, siphons back until the return line/overflow no longer has water. Just have to make sure that your sump can hold the additional volume.

 

This is a brilliant idea.

 

In one of the houses I built in Midrand we designed a 1.8l x 1.5w x 0.9h marine tank with a standard 4 foot beneath as the sump. The inlet pipe was way lower than the outlet pipe... and as you know... on a building site, power toold and faulty extensions cause numerous power trips. We had a cleaner on site who we trained to help condition the water for 6 month prior to introducing the fish... A year later, we have been through numerous batches of fish... they just didn't seem to last.

The day we handed the house over to the client, we discovered what was happening... during the power trip, the water was back-syphoning into the sump and overflowing. (Loosing about 100l every time.) When the power turned back on, the cleaner, being clever, realised the water level in the sump was low, and topped it up. Being a marine tank, the idiot forgot to add salt every time... So the centre of gravity was ALWAYS out... resulting in the fish not surviving.

We didn't notice the water loss because we had designed the house with a waste trap in the ground below the tank, so during water changes etc you just need to syphon straight out onto the floor, which then drained into the waste. This is all concealed behind brickwork and doors, so we never saw the water loss.

 

Ok now I want to ask something.

So if I connect my filter outlet with a pipe to the inlet of the sump and a pump from the outlet of the sump back to the tank this will work?

Just want to make sure before I flood my tv room. haha