Sump Help

Hi so I will be setting up a tank for angels soon. It holds +- 300 litres and was wondering if a +- 100 litre tank would be sufficient for a sump and if so what size pump would I need for the return of water ? Or should just consider buying a canister and what would you suggest ?

The tank will mostly be housing angels and maybe a group of cories and 2 sae's.

Help is much appreciated

 

Canister is great for planted tanks, sump for the rest is fine. Not saying you can not do a planted tank with a sump, but it will probably mean that you will need to push the CO2 a bit more.

Later Ferdie

 

Hi Chadyboy,
I am new here at the forum but if I may way in on your subject. A 100L sump is perfect and would work awesome. You just have to plan your plumbing carefully and the benefits of a sump is surprising. Like Butcherman mentioned it hides most of your equipment but also increases your water volume by 100l, its easy to clean and to add and remove equipment and media without disrupting the flow and filtration. As far as media goes my current aquarium I have a 3 chamber sump and in the first chamber I have a couple of layers of filter mat, second chamber I have about 10 litres of ceramic rings and the third chamber is the return pump. nothing fancy and works like a charm. when I clean the sump I just replace the filter mat and rinse the ceramics in a bit of tank water and I'm done to add media is as simple as dropping it in the same chamber like a bag of purigen or carbon. With the return pump you have to remember that depending on the height of the return plumbing your pumps rating will drop. So when you buy a submersible pump, check the box for the height rating. Also if you use hard plumping like pvc, you will lose 10% of the total return rating of the pump for every 90 degree angle in the plumbing. Because the surface area of your ceramics is so much bigger with a sump (only my opinion) I wold say 3 times the system volume should be good enough. I would recommend a 2200LPH pump if you take in account height and plumbing. Here is a pick of one of my first designs and I have simplified it quite a bit. I hope this helps a bit and best of luck