purchase advice

bump, - any ideas on whether to leave the sump as is or no? should i add more compartments, or move some divider or is it fine as is?

 

As far as I am concerned, I believe more compartments would allow for different types of medium.

But I've never had a sump, so don't take my advice as correct

 

Ferryman.

Now that I have SEEN a photo of the sump in another thread... why don't you look at only using 2/3rds of the sump for the filtration, i.e put more dividers in the first 2 compartments, and leave the 3rd compartment "empty" as an overflow.

The major downside with a sump is that if it is not designed properly, when the power turns off, or the pump packs up, the water in the tank often continues to syphon back into the sump, and generally the sumps are not designed to take this extra volume of water.

Obviously the tank will only syphon out to the level of where the outlet is in the main display tank... but sometimes that level is enough to flood the sump, and mess up that lovely new carpeted room, or spoil that wooden flooring.

I've seen a sump somewhere where 1/3rd of the sump is kept empty for this very reason. When the power is off, the supm al least has a bit more capacity to hold that extra water. Obviously you will need to test the theory when you've put it all together.

 

thanks for the suggestion zoom, i think wito-zn was the one who proposed a sump with that type of design, and i was also warned when i bought the tank that i needed to find a balance height for the outlet as the tanks previous owner did flood his room a few times because he had the outlet pipe too deep in the tank, an overflow compartment is a good idea for that "just-in-case-extra-bit-of-water-i-couldnt-account-for" time.

so, if i then keep two compartments, then from the inlet it should be under over under right? so i only need to add two extra plates to divide the remaining two compartments?

any suggestions, comments or ideas welcome

 

Yeah, I would do a 4 compartment thing in an under-over way. Not too sure which compartment for what. I know you can do your heating and airstone in the sump as well.