30g Sump for 180g Display

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

Is a 30g sump big enough for a 180g tank? I will only have a filter sock/poly filter and a skimmer in the sump. Refugium and ATO reservoir will be separate.

mta_morrow · Oct 12, 2018

Rcpilot said:
Is a 30g sump big enough for a 180g tank? I will only have a filter sock/poly filter and a skimmer in the sump. Refugium and ATO reservoir will be separate.

Where will your return pump be located? external?

Just make sure that you have enough space in the sump for the water that will drain back Incase of a power outage or return pump maintenance or failure.

TheHarold · Oct 12, 2018

Pretty small in that it may be hard to get a properly sized skimmer in there. A 180 is a big tank, and it would be great to have space for maintenance-minimizing equipment.

Reeferguy365 · Oct 12, 2018

All i had was a 30 gallon eshopps sump for my first sump it worked fine up until my check valve failed then it flooded my front room but it is easy to upgrade I just drilled it and added another 30 gallon. If you're on a budget I think you'll be fine just make sure your return lines aren't too low so if your check valve or anything like that ever fails it won't drain too much water into it

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

mta_morrow said:
Where will your return pump be located? external?

Just make sure that you have enough space in the sump for the water that will drain back Incase of a power outage or return pump maintenance or failure.

Internal pump. Planning on a Vario-S 8. That should give me plenty of flow to run a few reactors off a tee in the return line.

Yeah, its the water drain back that I'm worried about. I don't know how much it's going to drain before the water level gets below the dual overflows in the tank.

My return lines will always have a good sized siphon break hole... or two.

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

TheHarold said:
Pretty small in that it may be hard to get a properly sized skimmer in there. A 180 is a big tank, and it would be great to have space for maintenance-minimizing equipment.

It is small for a sump. I have a Reef Octopus 150 skimmer. It fits easily. Not planning on much of a bio load. Mostly LPS corals. I'm hoping the skimmer is big enough.

Gonna be a low flow setup, so I'm hoping to avoid any bubbles and have plenty of dwell time in the skimmer.

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

Reefguy420 said:
All i had was a 30 gallon eshopps sump for my first sump it worked fine up until my check valve failed then it flooded my front room but it is easy to upgrade I just drilled it and added another 30 gallon. If you're on a budget I think you'll be fine just make sure your return lines aren't too low so if your check valve or anything like that ever fails it won't drain too much water into it

I was thinking about adding another 20g or 30g sump if I had too. Connect them with a couple bulkheads and a union. Return pump don't care.

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

Doing some math.
180g tank is 24 inches deep.
180/24=7.5

So every inch of water is 7.5g

From the bottom glass... measuring up. The top of the teeth in the overflow are at 23 inches.
The bottom of the teeth are at 22 inches.

That means even if the ta k runs with the water flowing over the weir a full inch... which it wont.... I will lose at most 7.5--8 gallons of water from the tank during a shut down.
Add another gallon for water in the plumbing.
10g max.

Okay, so how much room do I need on a 30g sump to hold that 10g of drain back?
1/3 right?
This tank is 16 inches tall, so 5.3 inches or roughly 1/3 the volume of the tank will be needed.
30g / 16 inches height = 1.875g per inch of water.

My skimmer needs 7--8 inches of water.

Sump height 16 inches
Subtract 5.3 inches for back drain (5.3 x 1.875 = 10g)
Just under 11 inches left
Subtract 8 inches for skimmer
3 inches of wiggle room (3 x 1.875 = 5.5g)

So 5.5g is my margin for error. (scratches head)

Nope. Prolly gonna need a bigger sump or a second sump to increase that volume.

pickupman66 · Oct 12, 2018

@Rcpilot Dont forget, if your return lines are below the teeth line on your overflow, you will also have some drain down potential there. even with a weep hole.

Reeferguy365 · Oct 12, 2018

pickupman66 said:
@Rcpilot Dont forget, if your return lines are below the teeth line on your overflow, you will also have some drain down potential there. even with a weep hole.

A Y check valve will stop that.

Rcpilot · Oct 12, 2018

pickupman66 said:
@Rcpilot Dont forget, if your return lines are below the teeth line on your overflow, you will also have some drain down potential there. even with a weep hole.

Yep, figured that when I bumped the 7.5--8g up to 10g to account for the water in the pipes.

cracker · Oct 12, 2018

Seems small Friend. I use a 75 for a sump. plenty of room for shimmer return & a good size refugium. There is enough under the stand for a smaller ATO I went to Pet Smart & bought a rectangular pet food container the had several different sizes.

Crystal Reef Aquatics · Oct 12, 2018

I personally like a larger sump to display tank ratio. Generally I recommend a 1/3 ratio. Larger is almost always better (more water volume, room for equipment) Granted, I am bias.