Sump Design Questions [With Diagram]

[crasico]

It is only in the design phase right now, but I plan on doing a new sump.

I currently have a wet/dry filter.

Here is a fairly recent picture of it:


It only holds probably about 5g of water total maybe ten when the pump is off. I also have my return pump, skimmer and skimmer pump and a whole bunch more fit into this tiny little thing. This means literally no room for any more equipment, heat issues from the pumps, and no place for LR and/or refugium.

So the plan:

After much measuring I have found that the underside of my tank can hold a 20g (24Lx12Dx16H) glass tank with enough room to spare to add my ATO and an external return pump.

So here is the diagram I threw together.



It is fairly self explanatory, so I won't go into detail, but the main section of that sump is designed for me to be able to have live rock down there. Not sure if macro algae needs a substrate of some kind or not, but if not then I can even turn it into a small refugium as well. Otherwise, I have a spot for the skimmer and then hopefully enough baffles to eliminate any micro bubbles from getting to the return pump.

So my questions are these.

1. Should I just buy or find a 20g glass tank and drill a hole in that for the return, or should I make this thing from scratch out of acrylic?

2. Does my design . . . wait for it . . . "hold water" as they say? (Yeah I know it was a groaner, but had to keep this post somewhat lively.)

3. Is there anything else that I might not be thinking about and taking into consideration with this particular design?

Thanks for the help everyone,

Charles

[scubadude]

1. Should I just buy or find a 20g glass tank and drill a hole in that for the return, or should I make this thing from scratch out of acrylic?

Thats a tough question...well I think the answer depends alot on a couple of things like how much you get out of your own DIY projects, and if you may possibly change your mind in the forseen future (with acrylic DIY sump you will be able to do addons alot easier I think) The 20g glass tank will definately be more plug & play but I personally would go for the acrylic DIY sump...thats just me though, cost may be an affecting factor too?!

2. Does my design . . . wait for it . . . "hold water" as they say? (Yeah I know it was a groaner, but had to keep this post somewhat lively.)

Id say it holds water pretty good! If you do a DIY acrylic then you will have it much easier on "drilling holes" but you will definately have more time into the sump, its all a trade off

3. Is there anything else that I might not be thinking about and taking into consideration with this particular design?

There is a couple of things I wonder about, the foam filter in the water in first section could eventually become a nitrate factory IMO, I would ditch that...and its totally up to you but your fuge/LR area might be hard to put a SB in there if you wanted to go that route, but you could always put a small tupperware container down there w/ some sand in it, that way it would be mobile too. Other than that I love the design...Oh yeah where does the auto topoff go?

P.S. Sorry I didnt make it to the club meeting tonight Im now on 3rd shift and my sleeping schedule is all out of whack. Did you guys have a good time?

[crasico]

Thanks Rocky!

Yeah the club meeting went well, although we wished we would have had a few more folks show up.

I am seriously considering doing the all Acrylic route, but will definitely need to do some reading on what is involved to work with acrylic.

as for the foam, I want it there for catching larger ditrious before it enters the sump, so I would regularly take it out and rinse it totally clean. If you think there would still be a problem, then I would like to hear from you on that.

As for the ATO, I have a separate unit that would sit right outside the sump to add water back in. Because of space issues, if I get much larger on the sump, I will not be able to get it in and out of the stand.

thanks for the help!!

Charles

[scubadude]

Charles let me know if you need some weldon to do the acrylic work I think I have some laying around.

I think a filter sock (i have even used an old pantyhose b4) works good in place of the foam, you can even put some carbon in the sock/pantyhose.

Yeah I saw your ATO in the pic...that was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to check out your tank....it looks like a small ATO but evidently serves its purpose im sure. Still looking forward to someday checking your tank out in person

[keekalmatter]

i think the design looks great
i agree with Rocky on the filter sock
i just put one on my sump and it works great