DIY time: Plumbing and sump...need some help/ideas

[thejoshdavis]

I really want to remove the old vinyl tubing currently on my tanks overflow and return.

Quicky and dirty mspaint of my 10g sump

There are no chambers or anything. On a recent visit to home depot I picked up 2 sheets of pre-cut acrylic to just get an idea on the chamber setup. Ideally I would get a larger tank and add the chambers to that and then make the swap. What would be the best configuration for this? While doing this, I also want to throw PVC in and re-plumb everything to make it cleaner. I'm still cleaning up from my buddy. Any tips on the chambers and plumbing would be awesome.

 

[pickupman66]

If you do not currently have an auto top off for evaporation or are not planning one, I would make the area with your return pump as large as you can and the skimmer chamber just large enough to serve its purpose. the reason i say this is if you have a small area for the return pump, that is the only part of the setup where the water level will fluctuate. if it is a small area and only holds a gallon or two of water, then as you evaporate, that section will drop rapidly and you will get a return pump that sucks air every few days. or just remember to top off on a very regular basis. If I were to top off manually, I would make sure you can withstand at least a weeks worth of evap in that chamber.

 

[thejoshdavis]

If you do not currently have an auto top off for evaporation or are not planning one, I would make the area with your return pump as large as you can and the skimmer chamber just large enough to serve its purpose. the reason i say this is if you have a small area for the return pump, that is the only part of the setup where the water level will fluctuate. if it is a small area and only holds a gallon or two of water, then as you evaporate, that section will drop rapidly and you will get a return pump that sucks air every few days. or just remember to top off on a very regular basis. If I were to top off manually, I would make sure you can withstand at least a weeks worth of evap in that chamber.

That's a thing I'm dealing with now. Manually topping off every 3 days or so. Saying that, I finally got timers for my lights. So some days my lights would be on for 12+ hours. I have lights now from 11am - 8pm staged as best I can with 2 circuits on a quad lamp. Hopefully this will cut down on how often I'm topping off. I'm thinking of 3 chambers. 1 | 2 | 3. 1 would be the overflow where the skimmer sits. 2 would be the outlet of the skimmer, and 3 being the return to the tank. Chamber 3 would be tall enough to let debris fall into 2 but allow enough flow to maintain proper return. Dealing with such a small footprint I'm just not sure how to do that.

 

[quigimon]

I really want to remove the old vinyl tubing currently on my tanks overflow and return.

Quicky and dirty mspaint of my 10g sump
<img src="https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=43505"/>

There are no chambers or anything. On a recent visit to home depot I picked up 2 sheets of pre-cut acrylic to just get an idea on the chamber setup. Ideally I would get a larger tank and add the chambers to that and then make the swap. What would be the best configuration for this? While doing this, I also want to throw PVC in and re-plumb everything to make it cleaner. I'm still cleaning up from my buddy. Any tips on the chambers and plumbing would be awesome.

Interesting, I'm even more impressed with your paint skills lol, I can't do anything without at least photoshop.

 

[quigimon]

I really want to remove the old vinyl tubing currently on my tanks overflow and return.

Quicky and dirty mspaint of my 10g sump
<img src="https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=43505"/>

There are no chambers or anything. On a recent visit to home depot I picked up 2 sheets of pre-cut acrylic to just get an idea on the chamber setup. Ideally I would get a larger tank and add the chambers to that and then make the swap. What would be the best configuration for this? While doing this, I also want to throw PVC in and re-plumb everything to make it cleaner. I'm still cleaning up from my buddy. Any tips on the chambers and plumbing would be awesome.

Interesting, I'm even more impressed with your paint skills lol, I can't do anything without at least photoshop.

 

[quigimon]

Sorry for the repost, sometimes smartphones aren't the smartest.

 

[thejoshdavis]

Interesting, I'm even more impressed with your paint skills lol, I can't do anything without at least photoshop.

LOL thanks. Due to the limited size of my stand I think the only thing that MAY fit under there is a 20H or a 29g. I just want to make the most efficient filtration system with the limited space.

 

[pickupman66]

Go look at some of melev's sump designs. Melevsreef.com.

sent from my Galaxy with Tapatalk 2

 

[Dowtish]

a 3 baffle bubble trap in the dead center would work well.