Basement sump

[1fastrock]

Hello Everyone

I'm thinking about setting up my 90 gallon aquarium and have been researching how I want to do my sump. I am considering putting the sump in the basement but I am not sure if that's the best plan. The tank would be about 25 feet away from the sump with the sump being roughly ten feet below in the basement. Are there any considerations I would have to take? Does anyone have any pictures of how they plumbed theirs?

Thanks in advance

 

[ScottieB]

It's not that a crazy a plan, I think your are doing it right gathering research. Theres lots of basement sumps in the the tank build threads. I'm in the process of replumbing mine to the basement, fortunately directly below with about 15 feet of head pressure. I'll try to load up pictures at some point but here are issues I'm finding so far...

need to oversize the pump to account for the pressure loss, right now my tank turnover is like 1x/hour
long spans of horizontal pipe on the return trap air in the lines making for a noisy, slow restart after pump is turned off (again may be due to the undersized pump)
Lots more time and effort spend on PVC plumbing (including lots of unions)
Lot less noise near the tank
A lot less odor from the skimmer collection cup, considering its not near the tank anymore.
Much more stable temps considering my midwest basement is 72 all year long.

Thats a start but I'm sure theres more.

 

[James77]

Hello Everyone

I'm thinking about setting up my 90 gallon aquarium and have been researching how I want to do my sump. I am considering putting the sump in the basement but I am not sure if that's the best plan. The tank would be about 25 feet away from the sump with the sump being roughly ten feet below in the basement. Are there any considerations I would have to take? Does anyone have any pictures of how they plumbed theirs?

Thanks in advance

Distance from the tank is no real issue, you just need to account for head pressure on the pump. Larger diameter return piping helps there.

Where I am weather is cold most the year, so the basement is always colder. I compensated by insulating the drain and return pipes, likely overkill.

At the peak of my basement setup, I had a 175 gallon and 90 gallon (might have been 75g) running of same sump in basement. It makes life so easy, since you have all the room in the world to do water changes and actually be able to start a siphon. Less clutter under the tank is also nice, as well as less noise form skimmers and what not.

The only downsides are increased energy to return water to tank and extra heating costs if you are in a cool climate with no heated cellar.

 

[Sagecritter4life]

I run a WB 170 and a RS E260 both sumped to basement and agree with everyone’s comments above takes more plumbing and bigger pump but tanks are quiet in living area and bedroom and water changes easier with more room for equipment lol that we all end up with

 

[1fastrock]

Awesome thank you guys so much for the good advice! It looks like ill be pushing on with my efforts. What size pic would be good to use for this distance? 3/4 inch?

 

[James77]

Awesome thank you guys so much for the good advice! It looks like ill be pushing on with my efforts. What size pic would be good to use for this distance? 3/4 inch?

For my return pipe I had used 2" for most the distance then down to 1", but I was trying to milk every gph I could from the pump.

I would use at least 1", leaning towards 1 1/4". What pump are you planning on using?

 

[1fastrock]

seltz-d-750-dc-controllable-pump-750-gph-hydor.html

varios-2-controllable-dc-pump-792-gph-reef-octopus.html

cor-15-intelligent-return-pump-neptune-systems.html

Thinking about using one of these pumps. Any advice on which one to go with? This will be going on a 90 gallon rectangle tank if it affects it.

 

[Sagecritter4life]

I used 1" on the smaller RS tank and 1 1/4" on WB larger the better on long run if you go less takes much higher $ pump rated for head pressure.

On my smaller tank set almost straight above sump 12' with small 1' horizontal I have gotten by with my affordable current USA eflux dc runs 85%

On larger tank I'm 13' vertical and 10' horizontal that smaller pump won't work and splurged went A100 abyzz and running 85% also but added dual mp40's for added movement besides returns. Looks like needed A200 instead but LPS tank and turnover flow seems adequate

But look at pump curves carefully and head pressure kills flow most pumps are less than 1/2 of advertised at 10-12' head.

So in your case a 850 gph may only be 400 or less at the head pressure you'll have depending on pumps efficiency and plumbing size

Use 1' hd per 1' vertical on 1" pipe
Plus 1' hd per 10' horizontal then usually safe with 1' head per 90° elbow and use as many 45° as possible instead to make sweeps helps a little

But bigger diameter is better creating larger volume at less pressure

 

[Sagecritter4life]

seltz-d-750-dc-controllable-pump-750-gph-hydor.html

varios-2-controllable-dc-pump-792-gph-reef-octopus.html

cor-15-intelligent-return-pump-neptune-systems.html

Thinking about using one of these pumps. Any advice on which one to go with? This will be going on a 90 gallon rectangle tank if it affects it.

Varios 2 wont work according to their chart no flow at 13’ head basically. So make sure you look at the curves on pumps....research...research lol spend once