First timer. Sump Question

[diehardcanuck]

I have never had a reef tank and I'm slowly working on building my first system. I have a 120 gallon tank that will be my DT and I'm working on planning my sump (which will be in my basement) hopefully using the materials that I have available to me. I understand that large volumes lead to greater stability so I would like to put that into play. I have a 160 gallon poly cistern tank and a 20 gallon aquarium. Would I be able to drain my DT into the cistern and then pump my return out of the base while using my 20 gallon aquarium with treatment equipment in a sidestream arrangement to and from the cistern using a separate pump?

 

[redfishbluefish]

If I understand correctly, yes....but I'd just use one pump, your return pump. Simply tee off your return pump and have a valve to control flow to feed the 20 gallon tank. The return line from the 20 gallon back into the cistern is passive overflow from an open bulkhead. Hope that's clear....if not, I can draw a picture.

 

[diehardcanuck]

If I understand correctly, yes....but I'd just use one pump, your return pump. Simply tee off your return pump and have a valve to control flow to feed the 20 gallon tank. The return line from the 20 gallon back into the cistern is passive overflow from an open bulkhead. Hope that's clear....if not, I can draw a picture.

Thank you, that makes sense. The only problem with that solution, in my case, would be gravity. The cistern is 63" high so I'd have to put the 20 gallon tank higher than that, which I feel would be awkward to maintain stuff.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Narrow and tall....it will make working on that very difficult. I know you said you wanted to work with what you have, but I'd consider looking at Rubbermaid stock tanks. . It's a very common sump for basement setups. The 100-200 gallon stock tanks are around 2 1/2 - 3 feet tall.

 

[Reign1]

Narrow and tall....it will make working on that very difficult. I know you said you wanted to work with what you have, but I'd consider looking at Rubbermaid stock tanks. . It's a very common sump for basement setups. The 100-200 gallon stock tanks are around 2 1/2 - 3 feet tall.

There are also 65 gallon versions of this as well that are not tall. From what I am gathering poster is wanting stability and considering having the 160 cistern mostly full. There is no limit as to the configuration you use. You can very easily drill a hold and use a uniseal (or if a flat section on cistern) or bulkhead to set waterl level height in cistern. SO in other words you are only really limited on your budget and imagination.