Sump size.

[Freakyyfort]

I am having a 75 drilled. Wondering what I should do for a sump. I have my original 29 gallon... should I use that or go buy a 55? Would a 29 be sufficient? It is dollar a gallon at petco right now but I could also use that money towards another piece of equipment. This is a ground up project. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank

 

[twilliard]

The bigger the sump the better but not saying to go buy another tank.
I have a 46g bow front with a 40 breeder as a sump. Almost doubled the volume and enough room to house my skimmer

 

[Freakyyfort]

Was thinking a 40 breeder but if I'm going to spend 40 I might as well get the 55 haha. Guess it's more less got to figure out what I personally wanna run in the sump as equipment and refugium or not. This is my first tank first everything. We tore the 29 down for the 75 so may keep the 29 for the sons room. Do a freshwater. Was just trying to save a few bucks.. as I have learned real quick... don't save get a good setup and run with it haha.

 

[Acromora]

i say get the 55 for your sons room and get a 40 for your sump ! use the 29 as a backup QT? the 40 has much more depth which can come in handy.

 

[AZDesertRat]

I prefer length or width in a sump versus depth, it gives you much more surface area and usable room (square inches versus cubic inches) for equipment like skimmers, reactors and return pumps and more surface area for aeration and oxygen transfer. It is also easier to cool with a fan when you have more surface area to blow across.
One determining factor though will be your stand size if it is going under the diplay with a standard size stand. This is one reason I went with a 60" long 100G reef versus a 75 or 90G which were only 48" long, the extra foot under the stand plsu the fact I built my stand 6" deeper front to back for even more room made a huge difference on sump size and equipment placement. Rather than a 29 or 37 gallon I use a 30 long AGA tank as a sump and have lots of rom both in sump and in the stand and the operating water level is perfect for my skimmer.

 

[dtruonggwhs]

How much room do you have under your tank ? 40 breeder and 55g are pretty big.

 

[Freakyyfort]

Built my own stand. Built it to house a 55 in between the legs. But not sure if I wanna do a 40b or the 55. . Everyone says more water volume the better.. but the 55 is skinny. So being new. It's just more on what others would do...

 

[dtruonggwhs]

Nice looking stand, don't forget that the height of the 55 can be a pain too. I am currently running a 29g under by 75. However, i've set it up so that the baffle is stopping the water at the half way point. So roughly only 15g in sump.

 

[dbl]

I would highly recommend going with the 40b, between the two choices you've mentioned. In my opinion, and my experience, the 55g is too tall and too narrow. It ends up limiting your skimmer choices either now or possibly in the future. I'm preparing to build myself a new sump simply to do away with the 55g I converted.

Just my opinion obviously.

 

[jlancas81]

I did a 40 breeder under my 90 gallon and glad I did. 55 would have been way too high.

 

[ezoo]

55 gallon has less surface area than the 40 breeder btw.

 

[Freakyyfort]

Perfect thanks everyone. Glad I joined such a great group of ppl.. this hobby brings ppl together and I enjoy that. All input has pointed me to a 40 breeder. Well go get that and start pondering the sump build.

 

[thewbell]

I went with the 40B as well after considering a 55. My tank is a 60" long 120 and you can see how tight everything is under my steel stand with the 40B. I would not have had any room for a decent ATO reservoir or electrical area with the 55. Ignore the mass of heaters, this was when I was heating the water when I was starting it up.

 

[Freakyyfort]

That's a great comparison for me to look at. Is that a glass overflow? I really should've done something like that. I'll have to call my guy and see if he has ordered my boxes yet. If not I still could. Tank hasent been drilled yet.

 

[thewbell]

The overflow is glass and I actually made it out of the lids that came with the aquarium. I was going to buy glass and do a true coast to coast but had the lids sitting there and figured I would use those instead. I ended up with right around 34" as the total weir length if I remember correctly.

Also, on the sump the skimmer was not installed before but now sits in the far right compartment. The far left is a small fuge and I have a ball of chaeto in there. It is fed by the open channel drain (low flow) and also by a line off of my return manifold.

 

[Freakyyfort]

I was wanting to do a small fuge and possibly a small frag placement. Since I'm more into corals than fish.. the frag part would be a second fuge til the fragging started to happen. Being it's gonna be a new tank that'll be down the road I could convert it.

 

[Freakyyfort]

Skimmer is my next thing to look at. Reef octopus 150 I am being told. For a 75

 

[thewbell]

I have a friend that has the Reef Octopus 150 and he likes it on his 75. I ran a Bubble Magus Curve 5 on my 75 and it seemed to do fine (nothing really to compare it to) and now I am trying out a Coral Box D700 on my 120 and so far it is doing a good job.

 

[Freakyyfort]

I also was thinking about the coast to coast on my 75. He hasent gotten back to me about the order so not sure yet. If so it's gonna be two smaller boxes on either side of the back wall with return over the top. Been asking around that was suggested by a couple ppl. So hopefully I'll like it

 

[thewbell]

I would just do one box if you haven't drilled yet. My 75 had 2 boxes with 1 hole each (previous owner drilled it) and I always fought noise issues. Your best bet would be one box with either 2 (herbie) or 3 (beananimal) drains unless you are planning on low flow though the sump. My old system was very noisy with a mag 9.5 return pump (~680 gph) and my new system is nearly silent with my dc1200 (~2350 gph) return pump cranked all the way up. I do not typically run the pump this high but did during testing.