Need advice on sump

[dalto]

My wife is looking to upgrade her 75g aquarium. We have ordered a 72x24x29 RR aquarium with a 32" stand.

Her current aquarium and all my FW aquariums use canister filters. We have been reading information/articles on sumps and it is pretty overwhelming. Since it seems like recommendations are very situational I thought I would post some of our requirements/desires and see if anyone could point us in the right direction.

Goals:

• It needs to fit under the stand. There really is nowhere else to put it.
• Something pre-made would be ideal. I am confident she can connect it all but I can't imagine her building it from scratch.
• It is going to be in the living room so it would be good to be as quiet as it can be.
• She is initially going to be fish only but would like to get into corals in the future.
• We lose power for short periods of time fairly regularly. It would be ideal if there was no water on the floor when this happens.

In addition to finding an appropriate sump, we are not entirely sure what need to go into it. A pump, heaters and a skimmer seem to be the minimal requirements but most people seem to have a lot more than that in there.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[XNavyDiver]

Lots of vendors out there selling sump/refugiums. Just make sure you measure the space available in your stand and know what will fit, so pay attention to the dimensions when looking at them on the computer. If your stand has a center brace, be aware that will also limit you in size. Your probably looking for something in the 30 gallon range is my guess.

 

[dalto]

Lots of vendors out there selling sump/refugiums.

There sure are a lot of them. My problem is I don't know what to look for or what criteria to use to evaluate them.

For example, here are 5 different sumps that are all roughly the same size. How would I go about deciding which one of these is best for our situation? Are there certain things I should be looking at when comparing sumps other than size/volume?

http://biotekmarine.com/products/biotek-marine-bio-series-sump/
http://www.triggersys.com/ts/ruby36s/
http://www.eshopps.com/products/filters/advseries/adv300/
http://www.eshopps.com/products/filters/reefsumps/rs300/
https://www.bashsea.com/products/signature-series/signature-sumps

 

[XNavyDiver]

Wow. Some nice eye candy sumps there. Generally, what you want in a sump is three chambers. Inlet chamber, refugium/reactor chamber, and return chamber. Inlet is where tank water comes into the sump. This is where most put there protein skimmer. From there water flows into the middle refugium/reactor chamber. Then finally water flows from the middle chamber into the return chamber where your return pump resides ready to pump water back up into the tank.
As long at it provides those 3 chambers that really your only need. All the other stuff you see on high end sumps are cool bling and eye candy "neat to have" stuff. So just in case you were looking for a reccomendation from a total stranger... I've never heard a bad thing from someone that went with a Trigger.

 

[Big G]

I have a 90gal tank. It's the same foot print of your 75, just taller. I use an Eshopps RS-200 because it was one of the few that I could find that would fit under the 90 in the stand. There's plenty of room in it for water to "back flow" into the sump when I turn the pump off or during one of our frequent rural power outages. Highly recommend. The best price I could find at the time was on Amazon. Every stand is a bit different, measure and see if it will fit.It works really well by the way. Plenty of room for my RO Varios2 pump in the return area; plenty of room for my Finnex 400 Titanium Heater, a Marinepure 8x8 plate and a good sized chunk of cheato in the middle area. Cheers! And enjoy the build. Here's a picture of the sump just before I filled it with water.

 

[dalto]

Thanks for the advice and pictures.

I may not have been clear in my first post though. Her current tank is a 75g but she is upgrading to a 72x24x29 which I think would be around a 215. Is 30g still the right size or would we need something bigger?

 

[XNavyDiver]

In that case, 75 gallon sump is probably more in line with you needs.

 

[Fin]

This is where I got mine for my 125 - Elite-Aquatics

 

[dalto]

In that case, 75 gallon sump is probably more in line with you needs.

Ouch, any ideas where we could get one that large? The biggest one I have seen is 60g.

 

[XNavyDiver]

I'm not sure but a 60 would probably work just fine. If you want more room you could contact a custom acrylic builder or you could use a 75 gal glass aquarium and have the baffles siliconed in. Both are custom sump ideas. Going to a custom acrylic builder is muy expensive.

 

[Fin]

Elite Aquatics does custom builds. He will build whatever you need. I would check with them to see what they recommend.

This is an example of a large sump they have on their Facebook page

 

[cracker]

I have a 75 under my 180 .plenty of room . It should easily fit in the stand for a tank that size . Wait till You get the tank & stand 1st for sure. I agree with Navy ! All those fancy sumps are nice but not necessary, that depends on Your budget, Ya think Your Lady will come off the 75 for a sump? If not, check out your local Craig's list for a used tank. I used acrylic for baffles but You could use inexpensive glass . Just run some sand paper over the edges they are sharp ! Some silicone to hold in place . Here is a pic of my 75gl sump under my 180. It's a simple 3 chamber sump.

 

[Big G]

Thanks for the advice and pictures.

I may not have been clear in my first post though. Her current tank is a 75g but she is upgrading to a 72x24x29 which I think would be around a 215. Is 30g still the right size or would we need something bigger?

My bad. You were clear. I really need to keep my reading glasses on while on my laptop. LOL