Can your sump be to big?

[riche]

I'm going to be setting up a 90 gallon tank and the sump will be in the lower level of the house(its a quad), so it will be about 3 feet lower then the tank.

The tank is 48"w x 24"d x 18" h

It will be a mixed reef

I was going to get a 150 gallon but found this one and when I was planning the 150 I was going to use a 75 gallon sump.

Now I'm thinking I should be looking at maybe a 29 gallon or a 40 gallon for a sump

I'm going to be running a larger skimmer since it came with the tank.

Would a 75 gallon be to much for a sump on a 90 gallon tank?

 

[Chalice addict]

In my opinion there's no such thing as too big of a sump.

 

[RalphsReef]

Think of it this way; the bigger the sump the more water volume you have. That equates to much better water parameter stability.

 

[treemanone2003]

Think of it this way; the bigger the sump the more water volume you have. That equates to much better water parameter stability.

Makes a lot of sense in my brain. Anything I've looked at always comes back to larger water=more ease. Hence why my 10g nano will be much easier when I upgrade it to the 40b.

 

[Waters]

Yeah, definitely no such thing as being too big. I have seen sumps set up that were 3 times the size of the DT.

 

[Reef Junky150]

I have a 70gal sump 15gal fuge on my 150dt. Would have larger sump if I had the space. My dream set up would have two 300gal Rubbermaid sumps connected to a large dt approximately 700 plus gal 12' long

More water volume the more stable. Also increasing cost like heating cooling more water plus larger wc equal more salt possible more evap etc.

You just have to find within your budget and space what will work best for you. I personally don't think you can go to large if equipment funding can support it.

 

[hart24601]

I don't think it can be too big, but keep in mind waterchanges will have to be larger to keep the percentage changed the same and if it's all uncovered you will have more evaporation to replace. I suppose with more system volume you need larger heaters and maybe a bigger skimmer. Those are the only downsides I can think of.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't think it can be too big, but keep in mind waterchanges will have to be larger to keep the percentage changed the same

FWIW, I made that topic the Reef Chemistry Question of the Day. The answer is not trivial, IMO.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...-question-day-68-water-changes-sump-size.html

 

[hart24601]

I hope that I got it correct! I don't have time to run those numbers, but I am excited to see the results. Maybe I gave correct information for once...

EDIT:
After looking at it I may have been wrong... dang.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

:lol:

Life is like that sometimes.

 

[talwen]

I think it really depends on what the goal of the sump is. If the sump is just to hold equipment I think it can be to big. If you plan on putting in a refugium then that is a different story on size.

 

[pgravis]

fwiw, my sump is 75 gallons, my refugium is 90 gal and my display is 60 gallons. Everything is super stable

 

[fishroomlady]

+^ that sounds like a great system - I'll bet it does stay very stable

 

[hart24601]

Ok Randy, I will modify what I said. Keep in mind that larger waterchanges will be needed to reduce a undesirable concentration in a large system. Say if you notice you have 20ppm nitrate and want to drop it to 5ppm. I will leave out the arriving at 20ppm part.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok Randy, I will modify what I said. Keep in mind that larger waterchanges will be needed to reduce a undesirable concentration in a large system. Say if you notice you have 20ppm nitrate and want to drop it to 5ppm. I will leave out the arriving at 20ppm part.

FWIW, what you wrote above was correct the first time. The reef question asked about a slightly different scenario (a fixed impurity addition rate vs a fixed deviation in a measured parameter). I definitely agree that any time you want to drop something (or add something) that is not where you want it, the water change needs to be bigger to make the same correction.

 

[Deftec]

I'm currently running 325g(total volume) for a 250g display tank, will be adding another 125g display in it also.

 

[alohadood]

I have a dual dt of 65 and 90 and a sump of 55, fuge of 55 and dsb/bio filtration of lr of 55 so 155 tank to 165 sump. great system imo. I do a 40 gallon wc a week... which is,about 12.5% a week or 50% a month. and I produce about three to four lbs of chaeto a month