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Changing from canister to Sump

That one looks OK but you should really consider a mains water top up valve.

Couple of questions.. Was thinking of using a CPR OVERFLOW or a lifereef. Any recommendations????

Not really possible to have a mains top up value with the position of this tank in my home. Why would you consider this to be so important

The reason for the sump is where i live it gets hot in the summer so always dealing with evaporation marks on the tank, plus should help with o2 levels. With using a sump i can just top up the sump instead.

My main worry is if i have a electricity cut the sump may not be enough in size for any flow back?
 
Well that is exactly the reason to have a top up, if your sump has a surface area - let's just say - one tenth of your main tank, you will get ten time more drop in the sump level than the tank level in the same given time!
Or in other word your sump water level can drop 50mm a day if your tank is loosing 5mm a day.
I use 6mm RO water pipe from a mains tap so it is quite easy to hide and install.
 
Well that is exactly the reason to have a top up, if your sump has a surface area - let's just say - one tenth of your main tank, you will get ten time more drop in the sump level than the tank level in the same given time!
Or in other word your sump water level can drop 50mm a day if your tank is loosing 5mm a day.
I use 6mm RO water pipe from a mains tap so it is quite easy to hide and install.

foxfish thx for the reply.

So with a tank size of 90*45*45cm and the water level droped by 1inch for example, with my sump size of 55*35*36 how much water would it drop in the sump?? The sump has not been made yet so the size could be changed. i would like to be safe and not sorry in the future.

Thx

Mark
 
90 x 45 = 4,050 55 x 35 = 1925 so approximately... the sump is half the surface area of the main tank. I am no mathematician but that sounds like 2" drop in the sump?

So the sump size should be ok for my needs. Never away from home for more than 2 days on the run/

thx again Foxfish
 
Just make sure if electricity fails (or pumps) the sump can handle the water that goes to it, and if the electricity comes back on there will be plenty left to keep sump functioning. My own sump can spil extra water to the sewer. (all has to do with the overflow position, how much will the tank drain)
 
As soon as you own & understand how a sump works, everything will become plain & simple but it is not always easy to grasp the concept & the working until you see your own in action.
Personally I feel a top up system is very important and avoids destroying your pump or killing your fish, understanding how to deal with a power cut is pretty much essential!
The simple way is to have a anti syphon hole drilled just above the water level in the return line & ensure you have the sump capacity to deal with the excess water.... it is all basic stuff once you understand how it all works.
 
My mates first sumped marine tank, syphoned the main tank onto the floor upon first power failure. Lesson learnt....move on.
 
As soon as you own & understand how a sump works, everything will become plain & simple but it is not always easy to grasp the concept & the working until you see your own in action.

Im more of a hands on person when it comes to learning, when installed i should start to grasp the pro and cons. Learnig is all part of the fun:)

Personally I feel a top up system is very important and avoids destroying your pump or killing your fish, understanding how to deal with a power cut is pretty much essential!

Not going to be easy with the placement of the tank, but will look into this in more detail. as you say better safe than sorry.;)

The simple way is to have a anti syphon hole drilled just above the water level in the return line & ensure you have the sump capacity to deal with the excess water.... it is all basic stuff once you understand how it all works.

Great little trick, i shall be doing this for sure...

My mates first sumped marine tank, syphoned the main tank onto the floor upon first power failure. Lesson learnt....move on.

Luckily we have tiles in the living room, I used to spill a lot of water regularly

Lucky for me...... I also have tiled flooring:D will do testing with the tank full with water first and turn the electricity off a couple of times..

Thx for your replys guys:thumbup:

Mark
 
Lucky for me...... I also have tiled flooring will do testing with the tank full with water first and turn the electricity off a couple of times
Also you have to design for potential blockage, ie a leaf blocks the main tank outflow and the sump pump empties the sump into main tank causing it to overflow....lots of failures to think about....

Also consider noise, sumps can be noisy due to falling water and use of bigger powerful return pumps. People go to great effort to keep the noise down.

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/make-your-own-durso-standpipe
http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx
 
Also you have to design for potential blockage, ie a leaf blocks the main tank outflow and the sump pump empties the sump into main tank causing it to overflow....lots of failures to think about....

Was thinking of a Herbie overflow, which means i need 2 bulk heads to achieve this. was thinking of using http://www.cpraquatic.com/products/overflows.html The CS102 1200gph has two 1" bulkheads. Would this be ok for my tank size????

Also consider noise, sumps can be noisy due to falling water and use of bigger powerful return pumps. People go to great effort to keep the noise down.

What would your advice be concerning the flow rate going into the sump????

And the pump going back into the tank i was thinking 10* rule would be ok???

would a low flow rate into the sump have an effect on the outgoing rate???

cheers

Mark
 
I run about 4 x tank volume over the overflow (much less C02 loss) I have never used an overflow box, always a drilled hole or even better a cut out at the top of one of the panes.

Ahhh that makes sense concerning the co2 loss. thinking about sealing the wet/dry section to reduce the loss even further. Maybe a silly question but if i have 4 x flow coming in and 10 x flow going out, i will not have enough water coming in the sump as more volume of water is going out???

Will not be drilling any holes into the tank, so thats why i was looking at the cpr overflow.

cheers again Foxfish

Mark
 
And think about priming after power failure.

I've seen lots of syphons etc were you suck the air out of the loop to start the syphon, but if power fails syphon opens, stopping flow (a good thing), but you manually have to restart the syphon by sucking air out the loop. Also in this case the return pump will run dry as it will empty the water out the end of the sump box. Hardly failsafe. Not good if happens at start of a holiday....

This is why people drill holes/cut slots (notice plural, fail safe if one blocks) as they are self restarting once power comes back.
 
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