what size is your sump?

[fishinthewall]

Trying to decide on sump size I have heard anywhere from 25-50% or as big as you can. I have also heard as long as you can fit your gear.
I understand the reasoning behind sump sizes. Just curios what bigger tanks are using. The bigger the better seems counterintuitive when it is 300 plus total gallons, I understand more stability but also way more cost in dosing, salt and water.
Please post:
Tank gallons,
Sump gallons,
Approx % of sump used,
Fuge or not,
Under tank?
Are you happy with the size?

 

[Fin]

Tank gallons: 140
Sump gallons: 40B
Approx % of sump used: 60%
Fuge or not: Not
Under tank: Yes
Are you happy with the size: Yes

You also want to make sure the sump is large enough to hold any back-flow from your tank and plumbing, in the event of power loss.

 

[fishinthewall]

Thank you! What do you use for nutrient export? Any thing in place of fuge?

 

[Baby Ray]

Tank gallons: 29 gallons
Sump gallons: 20 gallons
Approx % of sump used: not sure what you mean by this
Fuge: Yes
Under Tank: Yes
Are you happy with the size: Yes, but you can never go too big (I sometimes wish I had more space )

 

[redfishbluefish]

Tank gallons: 90
Sump gallons: 40B
Approx % of sump used: All of it?
Fuge or not: Recently pulled Cheato....have biopellets
Under tank: Yes
Are you happy with the size: Yes

 

[fishinthewall]

I should mention I am planning a 300g display tank so going with a high percentage is hard, as of now I'm planning a 100g long and using about 80% for water volume so 80g of added volume. I need to figure my overflow and drain setup before I build my sump to known exactly my overflow is case of power outage.

What I meant by % used was how much water will the sump hold while running so in a 50 breeder 80% would be 40gallons of water.

 

[redfishbluefish]

All the folks I know who have big DT's have a remote "fish room", either in the basement or to the side/behind the tank. That's were they keep their big sumps. With a 300, I'd expect you'd have the room below....maybe with the exception of fitting in an appropriate sized slimmer.....although I think they make "stubby" big skimmers just for this. Please keep use posted....maybe with a Member's Tank thread. I'd like to follow along.

 

[Lynn52]

125 tank
29 sump about 20 gal of water. I wanted to use my old 55 but neglected to leave a way to get it under the tank. 29 was the biggest I could get in.

My other tank is 40
Sump is 16 about 60% with water.

My biggest concern in picking size was that there was enough empty space that if the power went out I wouldn't flood my house.
I have fugues in each sump but.i can't get chaeto to grow.

 

[fishinthewall]

All the folks I know who have big DT's have a remote "fish room", either in the basement or to the side/behind the tank. That's were they keep their big sumps. With a 300, I'd expect you'd have the room below....maybe with the exception of fitting in an appropriate sized slimmer.....although I think they make "stubby" big skimmers just for this. Please keep use posted....maybe with a Member's Tank thread. I'd like to follow along.

Well this is part of my decisions to make. If you check out my other thread on picking dt you will see why. I have a major problem of have two awesome places for a tank, I know I know such a terrible problem to have
I'm planning on a heavy sps tank, lots of automation, very low nutrients, hopefully long term do minimal water changes( I know this is hard to achieve but I have seen a ton of very successful sps tanks without)
Any way my point is its gonna be a little while, I have a ton of planning to do, I have seen way to many friends rush into a tank and regret something relatively major or permanent. Hopefully Jan 1 2017 ill be putting water in =D

 

[Pdandy]

Tank gallons: 265
Sump gallons: two 40 breeders
Approx % of sump used: 60%
Fuge or not: one of the 40's is sectioned in half (20g fuge)
Under tank: yes
Are you happy with the size: sump size, yes. But I could've built my stand a little taller.

 

[rayn]

A room with a remote sump, even remotely, is a plus. I built my tank in the wall and created a room behind it. This allows me to have the sump off to the side, rather then under. I have ran into height restrictions in the past.

120 tank
40b sump
Sump about 60% full, as full as it can go and no overflow in a power outage.
Fuge, no going to run pellot reactor.
Under tank, no

 

[Fin]

Thank you! What do you use for nutrient export? Any thing in place of fuge?

Skimmer & GFO presently. I also carbon dose with vinegar. But, I am waiting on a new tank and will incorporate an algae turf scrubber from Turbo Aquatics on that build, in addition to the skimmer.

 

[120reefkeeper]

Tank gallons: 120
Sump gallons: 40B
Approx % of sump used: 60% no over flow with loss of power.

Fuge or not: yes

in the center section with bubble traps on both ends. Left to right flow. Entry section is dual drains into 7x14 filter sock along with skimmer and carbon. Center section fuge. Far right section dual return pumps along with auto topoff.

Under tank: Yes

Are you happy with the size: yes

 

[zoomonster]

When I put up this 200g going on 2 years ago looked for the biggest off the shelf (that would fit in stand with everything) I could find which at the time was probably the precision marine r36+ I bought. Its pretty big but I wish it was larger for more volume. Unfortunately this build didn't have the luxury of a fish room or basement beneath and everything is under tank. I have sump/fuge/return w/ skimmer, CaRx, Kalk reactor, 10# C02 bottle, controller module board, BRS carbon/gfo reactor, ozone unit all in a 6ft stand with a little room to spare and some storage. The only thing outside the house is ~45g topoff water and RO/DI unit.

Tank gallons: 200
Sump gallons: 38g with actual 9" water level ~21g
Approx % of sump used: 58% with plenty of volume for the overflows to drain with power outage. Main pump uses backflow valve.
Fuge or not: yes
Under tank: yes
Are you happy with the size: for the most part

 

[fishinthewall]

Awesome, thank you for the feedback everyone. Looks like I'm going with a 100g sump, or maybe two 55 g but that may be a little tricky.
I am really surprised how few are using a fuge.
This was my plan for all filtration.
Overkill on live rock using the bio cubes from brs.
Fuge with cheato
Carbon and gfo reactor
Heavy duty skimmer.
Filter socks.
I'm also planning on running a caX and dosing trace elements.
Been seeing a lot about bio pellets, I can run this in a reactor in place of cheato right? Can I run them both? I really want to be at 0 n03 and 0 phos, then dose back in what I need. I would much rather have way over kill then not be able to keep it down.

 

[Justin D]

I have a 350 aquarium with 140 gallon sump

 

[Justin D]

The rule of thumb is your sump should be one third of aquarium size or big as you could fit as possible

 

[NanaReefer]

20L sump/fuge on my 40B. Under tank. Working flawlessly.

 

[mfinn]

I have a 233 gallon tank with a 86 gallon sump in the stand.
About 1/3 of it is refugium.
I'm fairly happy with it. I had it made to fit inside the stand and use all the space available and still give me room for external pumps with a little to spare.

 

[Fin]

My old 75 (10 years ago) had a 29 gallon (tall) sump (used at 50%), but did have a 30 gallon DIY refugium. I believe I had the best luck with this large refugium. Of course, I had to go with NO refugium on my upgrade. Personally, I think the larger the better with refugiums.

You can see the large refugium on a stand behind the tank. It was 36" long. Sorry that this is the only picture of it that I could find.

Remember, this was a decade ago.