Sump Help.

[Mike brown]

Guys you all know I'm new sooooooo. How do I make a sump? I have the 75gal. For the love of god be simple. I cant find a site that explains it very well or in depth. Oh yeah I dont want to drill my tank.

 

[wontonflip]

You can either buy a used 20g tank, for starters. Some even use rubbermaid tubs (I've done that).

 

[Mike brown]

Got the tank idea down. The rest I dont get. like the thinks to pump back into the main tank do I use a normal sump pump for a house from the hardware store? Also how do I seperate the tank into 3 sections?

 

[BL1]

You'll have to use cut down acrylic sheets to section off the parts to the tank. For the return pump, you'll need to use a submersible aquarium pump.

 

[Mike brown]

see this is where I start getting confused. how do I put the sections in?

 

[BL1]

Lol, you'll need to cut them to size and using silicone, set the sections in place.

 

[Mike brown]

im going to sit on this for a while and think and look around for a good site with lots of pictures. My tank is so new my wife would kill me to start this. Thx.

 

[BL1]

The sections won't go in your display tank, they'll go into the tank under your stand.

 

[rjordan393]

If you just want a low cost sump with no bells and whistles; you can use any of the square opaque containers that are available at the Home Centers. You will need to drill the sump if you plan to use a non-submersable return pump. You will need an overflow and flexable hose for waterflow to the sump. Now this is as simple as it can get. But most likely, you will have problems with it because of your lack of experience.

But here is what you really should do:
Most reef stores have display tanks with sumps inside the cabinet. look closely at them and note the equipment that is in them and how the sump is constructed. Look at how the water flows from the tank to the sump.
Join a local reef club. They are an excellent way to to see first hand how the members built their sumps.
or if you can find a fish store that sells them, then take a look.

 

[Mike brown]

LOL im slow BL1 but not that slow. ;-) BUT really ty I dont really know what im doing at anything about this stuff. maybe I got in pre-maturlly.

 

[Burch01]

Also, take a look at some videos on Youtube. There are tons of DIY's on there about sumps. Since you don't want to drill your tank you will need an hang on back overflow (this will transfer the water from your display tank to the sump via a flexible plastic hose). For the return a submersible aquarium pump such as a mag drive or sicce will pump the water from the return section of the pump to your returns in your display tank. You can either use rigid PVC or flexible piping for this as well.

 

[Old_Moe]

Hi,

I am setting up the exact same size as you are. I am still in the middle of my cycle but my "build" is complete.

Let me know if you need any measurements or any other pictures. Here are a couple pics of my sump set-up. I originally was building a 46g with a Hang on Back overflow, but I switched to a 75g that came bottom drilled. Sump is working great, skimmer is getting some nasty stuff out and I had a sucessful power outage without a flood :)

From left to right Drain-Skimmer // Return-heater // Empty for now- future cheato?