sump design

[yote]

You know Fatman,I been thinking the same thing about the remote DSBs.I've got 4 empty salt buckets sitting at home just taking up space.
Do you think it would be worth dasy chaining all 4 buckets together and running a small pump to supply the water from the sump?

[kyle]

do you guys know a good link for sump designs??

[daugherty]

http://www.melevsreef.com/55g/55g_sump.html

[Rcpilot]

Originally Posted by yote

You know Fatman,I been thinking the same thing about the remote DSBs.I've got 4 empty salt buckets sitting at home just taking up space.
Do you think it would be worth dasy chaining all 4 buckets together and running a small pump to supply the water from the sump?

1 bucket would be plenty. Run the water through just fast enough to keep detritus from settling on the bottom. 12" deep? Put a bit of eggcrate and some plastic screen in the bottom and install a ball valve drain in the bottom. Controlled Plenum Wasting. I've never tried it, but read an interesting thread on RC last year. I'd like to try it some day.

[fatman]

Originally Posted by yote

You know Fatman,I been thinking the same thing about the remote DSBs.I've got 4 empty salt buckets sitting at home just taking up space.
Do you think it would be worth dasy chaining all 4 buckets together and running a small pump to supply the water from the sump?

Each bucket will easily handle the continual denitrification of an average of 50 gallons of system tank water when set up only for denitrification. Ie. steady strong, shallow flow, no light,no critters and no macro algae of course, and sand of preferably 1.0 mm or smaller. The buckets stack up nicely and something as simple as a milk crate to set the bottom bucket on works fine. Just run part of your normal overflow water to the top bucket (say 250 gph), which gravity feeds the bottom bucket which gravity feeds the sump. With a steady, strong flow through the buckets, detritus will not settle out and the sand will not become a nutrient sink.
I do not remember the size of your tank, or what your bioload is but four buckets is likely much more than you will need unless you have an extreme fish load or a 200 gallon tank, however if you already have the sand or just use play ground sand the cost would not be bad four setting up four buckets. I have not heard of controlled plenum wasting, and about every study done the for last five years or so has found no benefit from the use of a plenum, but has found increased nutrient sink problems due to the larger particles usually used. With small sand size and a strong flow to prevent/discourage detritus settling what purpose would a plenum or a plenum drain provide? If you run across the thread again plese copy down a link forme, I would be interested in those opinions.