new sump setup.

[DutchFishGuy]

hello   fishkeepers.

I made a new sump set up , on paper  that is.And I dont know of it is a  good idea or not for a sump. The  sump is 48 inch long and can hold 52  gallons of water.I am just trying to make the sump more efficient  than the the 3 stepss I have now.

What is your thought on it will it work?

Greetings Dutchfishguy

[Dawn T]

Seems like more chambers than are really needed to accomplish what you want, but maybe that's just me. ??? I'll be interested in seeing what input you get from others. 🙂

[Jason A.]

can you share what this sump will be used for? size of tank and fish load etc.

[CT_]

52 gallons?  how big of a tank are you filtering?  if most of the chambers over flow into the next chamber seems like you'll just have stagnant water in most of the chambers.

[DutchFishGuy]

The sump has a flow pattern of up down up down . so no stagnant water . But i think i wil make one chamber less.

Edited February 19, 2021 by DutchFishGuy

[CT_]

Out of curiosity, what's the practical difference between sponge, bio media, and bio balls?  

[Dawn T]

Sponge captures debris and keeps it out of the bio media, so the media doesn't get gunked up. Bio balls are a type of bio media, which are a breeding ground for all that lovely bacteria we want in our tanks to deal with ammonia and nitrite.

[CT_]

2 hours ago, Dawn T said:

Sponge captures debris and keeps it out of the bio media, so the media doesn't get gunked up. Bio balls are a type of bio media, which are a breeding ground for all that lovely bacteria we want in our tanks to deal with ammonia and nitrite.

IMO sponge counts as biomedia too as long as its not clogged.

[Will Billy]

Instead of a up down, up down method what about a continuous flow method from right to left. Force water through each media phase. At the intake i would include a sock filter for mechanical filtration. Just a thought. See what you think about it. 

[Dawn T]

12 minutes ago, CT_ said:

IMO sponge counts as biomedia too as long as its not clogged.

I consider sponge to be a pre-filter instead of a type of bio media when it's used in a filter that includes bio balls or other media of that sort. The only time I see sponge as a bio media is when it's the ONLY media - like with a sponge filter. I handle a sponge filter differently than a sponge used as a pre-filter. The latter gets MUCH more thoroughly cleaned that the former ever would.

[tolstoy21]

I would go with three chambers to keep it simple. One for simple mechanical filtration like sponge and floss. Another with a big stack of ceramic bio blocks (the log like stackable ones people use in ponds. I think hygger sells boxes of these at a reasonable price). And a section for the return pump. You don’t need all those chambers with all that different media. Your heaters and what not can be placed in any of the three chambers and don’t need separate sections.

In my experience, plants are hard to deal with in a sump as they can get stuck in and clog the flow path, but I guess that all comes down to sump design.

In the end, a complicated sump will cost more in terms of media, be more difficult to maintain, and will give you marginal benefit over something simple. 

If I had mine to build again, I’d design it to make use of filter socks. 

[tolstoy21]

As far as UV, you might benefit from a single larger external UV light sized to your total water volume that has a dedicated small pump drawing water from the sump, and discharging back to the sump. This way you can tune the flow rate through it to achieve maximum exposure time.  This is what the saltwater folks do, and it’s a know good strategy.

Also keep in mind that one of the benefits of a sump is that the increased water volume for the whole system leads to better water stability. So don’t be afraid of more open water in the sump and less media. More media stacked up like that could clog easier and disrupt the total flow rate in the sump in over time, causing you to have to re-tune the rate of return, or the rate of flow into the sump on an ongoing basis. Also more media means less total water volume in the whole system.

I have 30 gallon sump and use a single sheet of filter floss on top of a small stack very coarse sponge blocks. My second chamber is very open, maybe a third of it is occupied by a stack of ceramic media blocks. Water flows over and through it fine. Return pump is in third chamber. Honestly, I think the amount of sponge and ceramic media I use is overkill.

[Toobit67]

I tend to agree with Tolstoy...  A sump is a great way to simplify your filtration...    no need to complicate it....  lest you spend more time worrying about your sump than your tank...

[AquaAggie]

just watched this. No next to nothing about sumps. But there you go

[MJV Aquatics]

3 hours ago, Dawn T said:

I see sponge as a bio media is when it's the ONLY media - like with a sponge filter.

Actually bio-sponge is an excellent platform for beneficial bacteria. We've been conditioned (maybe even brainwashed) to think that sponge is only good for mechanical filtration and we simply must have over priced ceramics, plastics, or pumice rocks. But as evidenced by hundreds of fishrooms using only air driven sponge filters, sponge material works great as a beneficial biology platform.