My 30Long sump/fuge design.

Hi everyone,

I've been playing around with sketches of how I wanted to set up my sump. Today I finally got my 30 long tank and I started re-measuring things again.
The problem came when assembling the Skimmer, it's foot print is HUGE!!! I'm not lying to you... it's 15.5" by 9" with the pump installed.
Since my tank is 35.5" long (inside measure from glass to glass) I was having a lot of problems distributing my spaces.

I originally started with a 14" fuge area, which I had to shrink to 10"...

Well... I'm sticking my sketch below, please give me your advice on how to save some space here if possible. I tried shrinking everything as much as I could to fit the skimmer, but let me know your ideas.
I know the drawing isn't perfect and it's got marks all over from when I moved things, but this is it:
By the way, I'm also putting a Gate Valve after the T on the intake, I just forgot to draw it.



Any advice?

- Mag.

 

the pump on the far left can be set on it's side, based on your diagram. That would save an inch or so.

Can you move the skimmer and pump so they sit front to back, instead of side to side?

orientation now:
______________
|pump skimmer|
-------------------
proposed:
__________
| pump ....|
| skimmer |
--------------

Moose

 

I see. This is my fault. I messed that drawing.

The orientation is like this:

P
U
M SKIMMER
P

Unfortunately I can't put them in the suggested config, because all together that would make the skimmer 15.5" deep, and the tank is only 12" deep. I should have gotten a breeder but the problem would have been the lack of a flat surface for it.

I'll post a real picture of how it looks sitting in the tank in a minute.

- Mag.

 

Here are the pics of how it looks. I made the mistake of saying the skimmer it's 15.5 inches, but in fact it's 15x9 with everything hooked up. If I put the pump on the other side, the vent pipe hits the top rimm making it 15.5" long.



Here's a front view:

 

Ok, I'm assuming my design is proper for my needs. I got the pump today and I thought it would come with suction cups but it didn't. Will that make it vibrate against the bottom of the tank?


Before I build this sump though, I have a major project to complete. I need to get rid of my undergravel filter system and the gravel itself, and replace it with reef sand. This is a lot of money for me at this moment, so I'm going to have to hold off on that for a week or so.

A job may come up soon from what I heard, so maybe I'll have more funds in the very near future to do all I want to do to my tank

Bah!... who am I kidding... I'm probably going to break the piggy and dig into my savings for this tank now.... some addictive hobby you got here pals!

- Magnus.

 

I don't use suction cups for my Mag 9.5 return...no vibration.

 

Awesome! I'm getting my glass cuts today, and hopefully all the plumbing. I'm planing to use Slip fittings for everything, except for the return, since I'm thinking lots of pressure may build there. Any advice before I start?
Does the design above raise any flags?
I will put a gate valve or ball valve on the intake right after the T, that's the only thing I didn't include in the drawing.

I was also wondering about lighting. I have the mangrove and some gracelaria I want to put in the fuge. What kind of lighting do I need for that? I bought the clip on light fixture like it it shows in the sketch, what kind of bulb should I put there?

As far as substrate goes, I'll put a deep sand bed, and then I'll top it off with about 1" of crushed coral for cope pods to hide happily.

By the way, any suggestions about that T on the fuge drain? Will it help with anything or am I better off without it?

Thanks in advance for helping me avoid any sump/tank catastrophe

- Magnus.

Edit: Just forgot to ask about the T on the fuge drain.

 

Your design looks like some of the others out there, so I really cant find fault with it. Make sure your gap in the bubble trap has sufficient space to flow water and do it's job.

My preference has been to have water flow from one side to the other. Water from the tank enters the fuge, flows over to the skimmer section, then over a bubble trap to the pump. Typically the skimmer sits in water that is deep (upwards of 9 inches for larger skimmers like yours) and then about 7 inches for the pump. That means I can have a fuge area pretty deep. A 16 inch deep tank would allow about 14 inches of water for the fuge area.

Check out this video for more details.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

I have not built one like this yet, but if I did, this is what I would do. Your design looks okay- just different, not necessarily wrong.

 

Changes...

This is taking longer than I expected. I've gotten a part time job that's helping a little bit, so I've been buying plumbing pieces here and there.
I ended up doing some changes on the design posted and went with something more like moose suggested.

I removed the 2nd bafler from right to left, and that will now have some glued on eggcrate and a sponge for noise reduction right before it hits the water. I really don't mind rinsing it, and I'm hoping to keep my sump clean... I don't really want it to look extremely dirty.

I've also bought a diamond encrusted bit to install three 1" bulkheads. One for intake, one for pump and one for refugium intake. They will all have elbows front and back, so the two tanks can be aligned. This will reduce all the elbowing and curves and I'm expecting it to be more silent.

I'm still missing one piece that I could not find in any of the two hardware stores here and as far as I'm concerned it may not even exist. It is a reducing male-male threaded nipple that will fit into the 1" threaded bulkhead (interior diameter is threaded) and reduce it to 3/4" threaded male. Has anyone ever seen this? If not, what could I use instead?

I still have the pipes coming down the same way since I don't want a lot of flow in the fuge, but do want a lot of flow in the skimmer/return pump area.

I can't wait to get this done. It will take me a while though, but I hope it's worth it in the end.

Any suggestions on bulkhead placement? It won't be too long before I get the bit from ebay and drill the holes. Is it better to drill them on the top part or bottom part to keep drains underwater and reduce noise?

Thanks for your suggestions again.

- Mag.

EDIT: Can I use Brass gate valves or other metal gate valves? I know it's not good to use copper. PVC ones are too expensive for me right now.

 

Well, I'm finally done with this! And very excited as well

First off, I had to go with a whole different design. After looking online, I realize that the fuge-skimmer-return was the better design and took something that was already out there and was proven to work and used it to better my little fishies stay

So, Here is the sketch:


Here is the finished product, it's dirty because it was taken when I just added sand, etc:


And here's after I rubbled the LR and after it cleared up a bit:


The plumbing had given me some trouble, but now it works, I know I could have done this differently, more efficiently and without obstructing my overflow box's flow, but I was more concerned about a slow flow in the fuge at the moment. I don't have a pic of the plumbing, but here's a sketch:


I am planning in the future to re-plumb this sump, but it's not really in the near future. It's all up to for how long my epoxy leak fix will last.
I also want to put a pvc gate valve on the return pump, this ball valve is extremely hard to control and my wife could never possibly turn it as hard as it is.

Thank you for watching!!

- Mag.