Help With Sump Design

[Duncan Tse]

First time making my own sump and it'll be great if you guys can give me some input. I have a 2 year 37 gallon reef system so there is no way of drilling a hole. Planning to get the eshopps nano overflow that is rated for 200 gph. Should the return pump be also rated at 200 also?

I will be reusing my Reef Octopus HOB 1000 protein skimmer as it is working great atm but the water level in my sump will need to be to the top as you can see in picture the pump intake is right where I need to hang the skimmer.

Going to be using a standard 5 gallon tank and I will glue the baffles in myself. Does this diagram I drew up look like it will work? I need the water level in the skimmer chamber to be high as it's a hob skimmer and then low in the return area so just in case my overflow fails then I will have some room for more water.

I will be using vinyl to plumb my system as I feel it's the easiest for me and I won't have to glue/cut pvc. Would this type of y barb adapter work to connect my return line to my reactor? This way I won't have to use another pump.

Just trying to keep everything super simple as I am just using the sump to hide my equipment. Nothing fancy

Quick fts of my reef for your time

 

[andrewey]

Couple of notes:

The Y barb will work, however I would absolutely put a ball/gate valve between that and your reactor, otherwise you won't be able to tune the flow to the reactor.

Any reason you are going with a 5 gallon (I'm assuming space?). It's workable, however if you are willing to use a container other than a glass aquarium, you can likely increase the volume and give yourself more space to work with. 5 gallon sumps are workable, but they can be a real PITA.

You should size your pump so that it is less than your overflow. You should calculate the head loss so that you know exactly what the predicted flow is and base it off of that.

One last quick question- I assume you've already thought of this, but are you sure you don't want to buy a 40 breeder, drill it and transfer your 37 over to it?

 

[Duncan Tse]

Couple of notes:

The Y barb will work, however I would absolutely put a ball/gate valve between that and your reactor, otherwise you won't be able to tune the flow to the reactor.

Any reason you are going with a 5 gallon (I'm assuming space?). It's workable, however if you are willing to use a container other than a glass aquarium, you can likely increase the volume and give yourself more space to work with. 5 gallon sumps are workable, but they can be a real PITA.

You should size your pump so that it is less than your overflow. You should calculate the head loss so that you know exactly what the predicted flow is and base it off of that.

One last quick question- I assume you've already thought of this, but are you sure you don't want to buy a 40 breeder, drill it and transfer your 37 over to it?

Yup I have the TLF reactor so a ball valve is included already.

Yea problem is I can only fit a 5 gallon tank and I know it'll probably be a little tight in there but I think it will work. Will just be a pain when I do maintenance work.

Haha tbh I actually thought about upgrading but with going for a bigger tank I'll probably end up spending more money on corals/rocks/sand/lights and thats a little out of my budget right now. Maybe later down the road for sure when my corals are all grown out.

Thanks for the solid tips

Another question is should you make the return chamber as big as you can or as small as you can?