mea_girl12
New Member
Can someone please explain to me what a SUMP Tank is and its purpose.. And is it really needed for a Salt Water Aquarium? Please Bare with me.. I'm very new to this hobby..
What is a Sump?
- Thread starter mea_girl12
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A sump is a second aquarium set up underneath the main aquarium traditionally although some have sumps plumbed in the basement or a room directly behind the tank. Basically the sump is used to hold all of the filtration for the tank such as protein skimmers, media reactors, heaters, and even refugium sections growing macro algae to help filter the water further. The water goes into an overflow section in the main aquarium and flows down tubing into the sump where it can be filtered through the various equipment. After being filtered a pump on the other side of the sump pushes the water back up into the main aquarium. Sumps are not needed and you can get hang on protein skimmers and filters that sit right on the back of your tank. There are also many all in one style aquariums with build in filters. A sump just makes things more appealing by hiding all this equipment and also gives you a little more water volume to help maintain stability. I attached a diagram showing a typical sump set up. I'd be happy to answer anymore questions.
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afamousjohnson
Valuable Member
Your best bet on this subject would be web search. answers written in text will confuse if there isn't a picture idea to work off of. After some sump searchs' you will be back checking witch chamber order, frag tank areas, ats, and anything else you can add. Sump can = heart to tank, but seen them without.
mea_girl12
New Member
thank you so much.. this really helped 
PostShawn
Active Member
A sump is basically a space to put things like filtration and other auxiliary items other then your "display" items (What you want people to see in the main tank). It's also a way to add volume to your overall system. It's rare but there are some people that have bigger sumps then they do their main display tank. Basic needs will be things like skimmer, heater and sometimes other filtration like more live rock, filter media, filter socks, chemical dosing or carbon or whatever, a refugium, etc.
You can get away without a sump but you'll need a couple things in your display tank like a heater and a skimmer. Skimmers can be debatable but everyone who gets one will say you need one. It helps to keep the bio loads in check. You can get a hang of the back (HOB) style skimmer for smaller tanks to attach to your main tank if you do not have a sump. Also you can get an HOB filter and use or not use the filter media (also debatable) but it's also great to use if you want to put a bag of carbon or something in there and just to add a little extra flow.
That's how I ran my 29g before I upgraded to a larger tank and a sump. My 29g had a HOB skimmer, HOB filter which I had a bag of carbon in and a heater in the tank. It was ok for a while but I really wanted a better skimmer and more fish so I upgraded to a bigger tank.
By the way, you can run a sump from your main tank in two main ways. You can have an internal over flow (usually the tall black box with cut outs at the top) within the tank it self. Water will go in there and then in a pipe with a whole in the tank and into a sump. It's usually a clean look because you don't have extra exterior boxes and hoses. The other method is to have an HOB external overflow box. This will sit on top of the tank and off the edge of it. Water will spill into a small box on the inside and a syphon tube will bring the water over the top of the aquarium into a box on the outside. From there a hose will take it down to the sump. The HOB external overflow box is a good method if you don't want to drill holes in a tank. Some people get scared of the syphon and if there is a power outage and the syphon still continues. That's a whole other topic. But that's your basic methods of getting water from the display tank to the sump. There's also all in one tanks which have a sump built into the back such has some of the Red Sea Max and Innovative Marine tanks. Then it's one tank with a sump built in and no external mess but they are often more expensive and sometimes less options for auxiliary item setup.
Hope that helps too. Do you have a tank yet? What would you like to do? Just ask any questions you want and people will chime in with some advice. This is a great forum.
You can get away without a sump but you'll need a couple things in your display tank like a heater and a skimmer. Skimmers can be debatable but everyone who gets one will say you need one. It helps to keep the bio loads in check. You can get a hang of the back (HOB) style skimmer for smaller tanks to attach to your main tank if you do not have a sump. Also you can get an HOB filter and use or not use the filter media (also debatable) but it's also great to use if you want to put a bag of carbon or something in there and just to add a little extra flow.
That's how I ran my 29g before I upgraded to a larger tank and a sump. My 29g had a HOB skimmer, HOB filter which I had a bag of carbon in and a heater in the tank. It was ok for a while but I really wanted a better skimmer and more fish so I upgraded to a bigger tank.
By the way, you can run a sump from your main tank in two main ways. You can have an internal over flow (usually the tall black box with cut outs at the top) within the tank it self. Water will go in there and then in a pipe with a whole in the tank and into a sump. It's usually a clean look because you don't have extra exterior boxes and hoses. The other method is to have an HOB external overflow box. This will sit on top of the tank and off the edge of it. Water will spill into a small box on the inside and a syphon tube will bring the water over the top of the aquarium into a box on the outside. From there a hose will take it down to the sump. The HOB external overflow box is a good method if you don't want to drill holes in a tank. Some people get scared of the syphon and if there is a power outage and the syphon still continues. That's a whole other topic. But that's your basic methods of getting water from the display tank to the sump. There's also all in one tanks which have a sump built into the back such has some of the Red Sea Max and Innovative Marine tanks. Then it's one tank with a sump built in and no external mess but they are often more expensive and sometimes less options for auxiliary item setup.
Hope that helps too. Do you have a tank yet? What would you like to do? Just ask any questions you want and people will chime in with some advice. This is a great forum.
LetItReef
2500 Club Member
We have a regular size 29g and does not have a sump. We have HOB skimmer and a filter. The filter is there so I can hide the small heater and I can put the activated carbon. Every two weeks of water change. Few fishes, pair of cleaner shrimps/hermits/snails and some Softies and LPS corals and all doing well. Keeping it simple and it works for us.
