Here in Tally, we have short power outages nearly every day. They last about 2 minutes tops. I want to install a sump on my tank (which is not predrilled), but since all of the overflows work on
a siphon, I don’t think they’d work. I go to Orlando once a month, and I don’t want to return to a dead tank.
So, I was thinking of making my own version. I thought I’d use a water pump in a surface
skimmer box to push the water out of the tank and into the sump, and then another pump in the sump tank to push the filtered water back out of the sump.
My thought is that the box would prevent water from siphoning into the sump after the power cuts off. IF this would work, what size of pumps would I need? Obviously, the tank pump would need to be smaller than the sump pump, since gravity would feed most of the flow.
My tank is 55 gallons, and the distance between the top of the tank and the top of a sump would be about 70 inches. My skimmer is a Aqua-C Remora Pro.
Also, should I set this up so that the water is returned to the tank by a spray bar for the water flow source, or should I continue to use a bunch of power heads in the tank instead? Or both? And,
what size of sump should I use? Seems like a 30 gets the most use. I think I will set it up to have
refugium in the sump too. I don’t know what I’d use it for now, but I might want it later. Could I put some good deitrus eating crabs in there to pick up the gunk collection that sumps have in the bottom?
Sorry, I’m good at the ideas, just not the fine points that would make it actually function without dumping water all over the floor. I don’t think my landlord would be happy either.
I want to get this done so I can spend my time thinking about something else to buy for my tank.
DIYers, Help with a sump idea 
