so basically here is whats up... water comes into the back right chamber (as viewed in the iso) via a sypen tube fromt he main tank... this chamber (which contains the skimmer) fills with water and overflows into the left back chamber... This chamber contains a pump and the heater... the water is then pumed into the tank, or the fuge.... The water that is pummed into the fuge eventually flows over the top and back into left rear chamber... When a water changes is needed the left rear chamber can be emptied via a drain tube with a valve... then simply heated and pumped through the system... any thoughts... the foot print is 10"x10" and it is approx 12 inches tall... the rear chambers have a foot print of 5"x5"... this should add about 5 gallons to the volume of the tank... prolly going get like a 80 gph pump and runn 60 or so to the tank and 20 to the fuge... Remeber this is on a 10 gallon mantis tank and it will be sitting beside the tank so there is no head or anything... Im just not totally up with fuges and stuff... -me
where is the return plumed? are you going to have water standing into the compartment with the siphon tube to keep siphon. IMO.... its better to do water changes from the display so you can clean the LR. looks really narrow hope you don’t drop something important into it.
Since you will not be putting a protein skimmer or doing any chemical filtration in you sump I think it looks like a good design. If you can make it any bigger, I would, there are always things that come up that you want to do with a sump that you never thought about. I have incorporated refugiums into two sumps that I am using for filtration and wouldn't recommend doing it. The main system that I am currently setting up will not incorperate a refugium in the filtration sump. Keep us posted.
i guess i should have explained a bit better... this is more of an equipment sump/fuge than it is a filtration sump... yes there will be standing water in the back RH chamber where the siphen tub comes in... I will running a sump at first atleast, but it will just be my small nano skimmer... It is narrow, but you have to understand that its size was the main factor... i want it to sit beside my 10 gallon and not look like a huge eye soar... and having a sump larger than my tank sitting right beside it would be an eyesore for sure... This all might be null and joid if i order a drilled 15 gallon... which i might... -me
I have run a clam tank for the last several years that is about 4 x 4 and managed to fit a custom sump with refugium, protein skimmer, heater, pump, chiller pump and calcium reactor all in the stand. I guess I am deserving when someone called me the king of cram, something that made me realise that I was giving myself headaches by fitting everything under hood, so to speak. That is when I hatched my 100 gallon sump central system that is almost complete.
You might consider running all the water through the fuge. 80 GPH is not much flow to send through a fuge. This would also allow the microbubble from your skimmer to dissipate in the fuge and have less of a chance of making back to the display. Just a thought.
This is a key question, how is your siphon designed? It needs to be done almost perfect in order to handle power outages, air traps, etc. Pluming the siphon directly into the sump will be difficult. You will need to pretty much perfectly map the back devider to the top of the water level of your tank. Also, do you have enough space in there to deal with the water drop in the back left chamber due to evaporation?
ok lets address all this... "You might consider running all the water through the fuge. 80 GPH is not much flow to send through a fuge. This would also allow the microbubble from your skimmer to dissipate in the fuge and have less of a chance of making back to the display. Just a thought." umm thats 30 turn overs per hours (fuge section is 2.5 gallons)... i was under the impression that fuges needed a slower flow rate to wrok properly "This is a key question, how is your siphon designed? It needs to be done almost perfect in order to handle power outages, air traps, etc. Pluming the siphon directly into the sump will be difficult. You will need to pretty much perfectly map the back devider to the top of the water level of your tank." i think yall are making this a bit harder than it really is... the sypen is simply a tube ran from the tank to the first chamber... It is this simple because they are on the same level... if power goes out... nothing happens... i just have to make sure that i use a large enough tube to allow the syphen to level out the tanks... bubble MIGHT cause an issue, but ill just have to watch for them over the first few days... "Also, do you have enough space in there to deal with the water drop in the back left chamber due to evaporation?" It would be roughly 1.25 gallons and easy to monitor.... -me
80 GPH just isn't that much flow and I don't think you will have any issues. Maybe you could set you pump up in a bucket and move water from one chamber to another to see what the flow looks like. Good luck!
Just a few more comments here (keep in mind I have a siphon system and have had to solve lots of these issues as well). When the power goes out your return line will empty, and depending on how it is configured may also siphon out some water from the tank. This creates much more water than you might expect. There are a few ways to deal with that, but for sure you would need the return plumbed above the drain on the main tank. One thing that will become annoying depending on what you like to do, is that if you ever siphon water out of the main tank for any reason (doesn't sound like you plan to do this for water changes, but most people do) you will break the siphon and have to restart it each time. One last question, how do you plan to block the siphon in the tank from fish or snails going into it? It looks like all of your ideas will probably work out, just be sure to think of every possible failure point because most of them will happen at some point. Best of luck to you.
"When the power goes out your return line will empty, and depending on how it is configured may also siphon out some water from the tank. This creates much more water than you might expect. There are a few ways to deal with that, but for sure you would need the return plumbed above the drain on the main tank. " the area of volume empty in the sump would only be a lil over a gallon... sooo it wont drain much b4 it raises to match the tank water level... "One thing that will become annoying depending on what you like to do, is that if you ever siphon water out of the main tank for any reason (doesn't sound like you plan to do this for water changes, but most people do) you will break the siphon and have to restart it each time." only if i drain enough water out for the bottom of the tube to get air... "One last question, how do you plan to block the siphon in the tank from fish or snails going into it?" i was planning on using a HOB style return with the typical cage on the end... -me
That sounds like it would work fine. I was thinking you were not using a HOB style, that fixes most of the problems I was bringing up anyway. Good luck
