Want sources of info on setting up a sump for my 120 tank this summer.

[KittenFishMom]

While I am waiting for my well water problems to either sort them selves out or go to the water lab on Monday, I thought I would shift projects and start research on setting up a sump for my 120 gallon tank for my summer native tank. It is a major job trying to keep up with a canister filter, four sponge filters and several hang on back filters. Water changes with buckets at or above shoulder level gets old fast.

I toss lots of sea weed in, but the adult bull head catfish and crayfish really make a planted tank impossible. 

I looked on Amazon searching in "books" for "aquarium sumps" and very few came up and all seemed to be for salt water.

I found lots of stuff on YouTube, but would rather have something that is organized like a book with an index. YouTube videos tended to says things like "depending on the flow you need" with out saying much about how to figure out the flow you need.

I have only seen sumps on YouTube. With COVID, I haven't joined the local fish club that is over an hours drive away.

Any advice of where to find organized sump info? It doesn't need to be fancy or pretty.

Edited February 27, 2022 by KittenFishMom
fixing auto correct typos

[Fish Folk]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:09 PM, KittenFishMom said:

my 120 gallon tank for my summer native tank

🤓 so cool! What are you planning to keep in there??

I like Oscan’s older tutorials on setting up his freshwater sump…

Cory made a nice tutorial as well about 3 years ago…

I’d definitely check this video out too! I’m mistake-probe, so this might save you grief!

 

[KittenFishMom]

@Fish Folk I will be keeping the fish I catch. I Do mostly catch and release, but I like to keep some on hand because my Mom, who is on chemo, has lost her appetite, and really likes very fresh fish. I can take the biggest swimming fish in my tank and have ready and in her frying pan in about 45 minutes. It doesn't get fresher than that. I swap the fish in and out all summer, so they tend to be very wild and skittish. I feed them handfuls of local earthworms and fresh seaweed and am going to have big scud colonies this summer as well. The earthworms are full of fine mud, that make a mess of the filters very quickly. (NOTHING goes into the tank other than local fish and fodder. All new filter media and everything is cleaned very carefully so as not to introduce anything to the lake. We own the cottage and take extra good care of the lake. We even set up a pool pump to run a big fountain to put extra oxygen into the lake water.)

In the spring and fall, mostly big bullhead catfish and some mudpuppies because they are fun to watch. During the summer it is a wide variety of what I catch. most sunfish, perch bluegills, a load of huge snails, and crayfish from the lake to clean the tank. The DEC says they are mystery snails, but GuppySnail says they are apple snails.

Thanks for the tip on the videos.  We have limited band width here, but I will watch them as I can.