Building a Sump

I'm not much of a DIY type of guy. But for whatever reason, I've decided to build my own aquarium stand, install a laminate floor, and now build my own sump...all over the course of a 2 week period. I'm certainly not enjoying myself....just saving the money I guess :?

Anyway, here is the design I've come up with for my sump. It will be a 20 gallon long with acrylic baffles. I bought GE Type I silicon, which was rather hard to find.



The skimmer compartment is big enough to hold the ATI PowerCone 160 I'm hoping to get, and is actually big enough to hold the PowerCone 200 if the 160 is discontinued (before ever being released in the US). For the time being, I'll continue using my Reef Octopus HOB, but I'll move it down to the sump.

Links on the skimmer for the curious:
ATI PowerCone Skimmer
ATI PowerCone Caught on Video | AquaNerd

For my return pump I am planning on the Tunze Recirculation Pump/Powerhead Silence 1073.040

For my overflow I'm going with the LifeReef Slim Prefilter.

My hope is to have a very quiet setup in the end:

• AquaIllumination Nano Sol Blue x2 LED Lights (no fans)
• ATI PowerCone 160 (Supposedly very quiet)
• Tunze Silence Recirculation Pump
• VorTech MP10w ES

The VorTech should in theory be the loudest part of the setup, which isn't too bad.

I'm hoping to start construction on the sump tomorrow, and if all goes according to plan I will plumbing the sump a week from today.

looks good . good luck with the build.

Do I need to leave a gap between the baffle on the aquarium? Or should it be totally snug?

For example, if the aquarium is 30"x12"x12" should my baffle be 8"x12" or 8"x11 3/4" ?

its up to you really but if you put em to close togeth they can be a pain to clean inbetween if you need to.

only thing i might sugest is if you got a bunch of spare room in your skimmer area add some space to your return pump spot so that you have to top off your water less. but layout looks good

x19 said:

Do I need to leave a gap between the baffle on the aquarium? Or should it be totally snug?

For example, if the aquarium is 30"x12"x12" should my baffle be 8"x12" or 8"x11 3/4" ?

Click to expand...

A little gap is fine. It is going to get siliconed in place anyways. I wouldnt cut the sheet smaller than 1/4" less than the opening. But if you can get it cut only 1/8" smaller that would be better.

That way you would have 1/16" to 1/8" gap on each side. If the gap is any bigger than 1/8", you will have difficulty trying to silicon it in place.

I also agree, try to make the return pump section as bigg as possible. If it is only large enough to hold the pump, you will need to top off all the time, not just once a day.

When you add a sump, all the evaporation shows up in the return section. If you have the room in your stand, you might want to make a separate fuge

In your diagram, it looks like you've got the water coming from the refugium over the baffle to the return sump....I would reverse it..If the water is splashing down onto the return pump it's going to cause you to have microbubbles....leave the gap for the water to flow through at the bottom, it will eliminate the microbubbles.

You can leave the baffle in the diagram in place, just put an additional one before the return pump....leave a gap between the bottom of the tank and the baffle so that water can flow...The baffle you have now will work nicely to keep the refugium separated from the return pump area.

Thanks for taking a look everyone, I didn't see PRC's suggestion until just now so I haven't updated the diagram for this..

I adjusted the skimmer section to fit the ATI PowerCone 160, so hopefully that will still be released as I won't have room for the 200 :-) This allowed me to significantly increase the space around the return.



I do have room for an ATO reservoir in the stand next to the return section, so that may be my next project. Though that will need to wait a bit.

Oops, the return section is 9"x9" in this, typo in the label.