Lecture 3 - Sumps and How they work

Lecture 3 - Sumps and How they work

There seems to be a lot of dis or maybe mis information about Sumps.

That they are for professionals only
That they always flood your house in a power cut
That they are finicky ancd hard to keep going
etc. etc.

Neither of the above are true, they are in fact relativley easy to set up and use, provide good filtration and are easy to clean. So what is a sump ????

To be continued ........................................................

 

Couple of things to consider.

Canisters are very quiet. There are very efficient at chemical, biological, and mechanical filtration. However, they are more time consuming and difficult to clean.

Sump type filters can be noisy, especially for tanks that weren't built with drilled bulkheads. Using an overflow box can be funky and if it is not designed well you can empty several litres of water on your floor. However, most sumps can be "cleaned" ...simply remove the mechanical media and rinse out the debris. Unfortunately, due to these filters being easy to neglect people often don't clean out the mechanical filter media and debris ends up in the bio-media. These filters can efficiently breakdown most forms of organic nitrogen and the result is they become nitrate factories. This can be largely avoided by being diligent with cleaning the mechanical media on a routine basis.

 

Hi Warren,
Saw your post comparing canister filters and sumps, and it seems like you have some insight.
I know a guy who can set up a sump for me in a way that it is fairly quiet, and will not overflow in power outages. When you talk about cleaning "mechanical" stuff, are you talking about the actual filtration media? (Ie, rocks, white fluff, etc)
I currently have a small canister filter in my 60L tank, and I find it quite easy to clean out when I need to. So you're saying that sumps are even easier than that?
Do you have any thoughts on box filters? (built-in filters - don't see them very often)

 

Getting it not to overflow in power outages is not that big a deal. I think Warren is referring to filter floss, the white fluffy stuff and other bio-mechanical media designed to trap detritus.

Sumps aren't always that easy to clean. They are generally much much larger than any canister filter, which means a lot more filter media and a fair amount of glass making up the sump.

I had to clean out my Discus sump the other day, 900LX450WX400H, and it was definitely not easier than a canister filter. Draining it, moving media into buckets with water and physically moving it out of the cabinet was hard work.

Nothing wrong with box filters, just that you lose tank space to them. eg your tall 4ft is now a tall 3ft in terms of swimming space

 

Every water change. A complete sump clean out is a totally different story

 

hey this is a old thread I found when searching for explanations on how fw sumps work. I wanted to find out how they are built , how much noise they make and any other common problems and there solutions .
basically the tips of the trade from people who have them .

would be cool if this lecture was started ?
this could form a great reference for all members

in the meantime ill continue searching the net just I trust your guys views more

cheers

 

Brads,
I'm hoping that someone will come on and share how a sump works... unfortunately I know old fart (i.e Zafgak) is extremely busy at the moment. He is hardly ever online these days. Maybe Vee can take over?

 

Hi all
Don't know if this belongs in here. I have a 4 chamber(filterfloss>gravel>sand clearwater) filter BEHIND my tank. No noise no possibility of running dry or flooding the floor. Does this also qualify as a sump??

 

This is my diy behind the tank sump it works in reverse to the below the tank sump the water enters the sump from a powerhead inside the tank and when the water in the sump is above the tanks water level it runs back into the tank after passing through the 4 chambers. My tank is spotless thanks to the 1st filterwool chamber the pipes u see running into the bottles are airlines because i have many power failures and they keep all the benf bacteria alive here are some pictures and plans.

- from my diy post ( http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=3642 )

 

And its super cheap and affordable :bigsmile:
you can do the same with 5l containers etc and really bump the total capicity

 

Hi Snyper
What happens if for what ever reason something blocks the return pipe to the tank. If you put the pump INTO the filter the worst that happens is the pump can run dry. Just a thought but i might be wrong!

 

Every chamber contains an overflow you can see this in the plans for this exact problem everything was taken into account before the plan was put into action to prevent any possible problems. With regards to the 4th and final chamber that leads into the tank - this chamber is filled with ceramic rings and a 3cm gap is left between the outlet and the actual ceramic ring level as ceramic rings naturally sink there is no way that the outlet pipe can ever get blocked. Hope this answers your question. This could have been a prob if the 4th chamber was filter wool or something that floats

 

I had ones a eel going thru a outflow untill eventually he got stuck for what ever reason i never found out. I didn't wonna critisise your system just share my experience.

 

No worries. Its through experience being shared that experience is gained u can only better ur designs and ideas if u listen to everyone who had had prior experience. Thanks for the info. I don't keep eels in my system but to prevent this u can cover up the intake pipe to the filter in my case I have a powerhead with a sponge trap that will prevent this. Glad u mentioned it though as many powerheads don't have this precaution and have to be covered by something like stockings etc

 

Gravel cleaner for Oscar tank:
Since we are on the topic of sumps i was wondering if this would work.

It begins on the left side:The water flows over the gravel from the one side and enters the left side,it then goes up a pipe (which is about as hight as the water level to act as an overflow) and down into the sump,it then goes thru the filter media to the other side where the water pump pumps it back up into the tank where the cycle repeats itself.

(only for big tanks with big fish that like to be messy)

 

Its a good idea and i think it might work. You will just have to enure that the pipe is above water level to prevent a siphon effect from happening the main problem i see is running 3 powerheads in perfect harmony what i mean by this is that 3 have to fill the sump and at the same time push the water up at the same speed if there is a blockage in any one of these powerheads you can have big problems.
1. PH to the sump blockage - PH in sump can empty the chamber entirely.
2. PH to the tank blockage - Sump will overflow
3. PH receiving from the sump blockage - sump will overflow.
This is why sumps use overflows from the main tank. as opposed to PH

Another problem is the holes you will have to drill in the acutally glass for the powerheads, as this is a tank for oscars that glass will be very thick and if anything goes wrong you will have to replace either a side or the entire tank.

Stormer its a very good idea, the trick to what you want to attempt is simplicity remember that gravity is your friend. This is a very big project but with alot of planning and ensuring that everything is functioning correctly you can set it up - and you will have a very low maintenance tank then too