Advice On Makeing A Sump

hi i am quite new to fish keeping and i have a fluval roma 240 which until recently only had live bearers in it until a friend of mine gave me a discus and now i want to add a sump tank but im not sure if my idea will work will i be able to use my canister filter to pump the water back up in to the main tank ? and is the rest of the sump ok ?

Hi Adam,

You can go with sump dimension in cm with 90Lx36Dx50H, this will give you space area up to 160L but you would normally running it at 120L to 140L for additional filteration and keep the idle space for water overrun if the pump in the sump failed.

The chamber plan for the sump is good but If I were you I would swap the water coming in to the sump on the same side from the water coming from the top tank as this will be straight and less plumbing required from the top tank.

I would not use the canister 305 to pump back the water as you will have less water turnover and you will be having problem to get the filter running from the start if the water level in the sum is lower than your canister. Without sump, you can get about 4 times water turnover per hour as the 305 is 1000Lph and your tank is 240L.

With additional volume from the sump, your volume will be increased to 340 to 380L. You better getting a compact pump for 1000Lph in the last chamber and you the canister as a second filter in the tank.

Another option, you can get a bioball sump with spinning arm and move the plant in the sump to the main tank as Discuss will enjoy planted aquarium but the running cost for planted will be higher in the future and more maintenance.

All the best and please share your new tank set up when you ready

Definitely agree on the water entering the sump at the same end as it leaves the display tank. Your set up there looks like it would be very noisy.

Traditionally a sump would have the filter components right at the start of the sump tank. There are a variety of reasons for this, one of the big ones is that water entering the sump with be more oxygenated so aerobic filter bacteria will have better conditions. There's nothing wrong with the way you've done it though.

As said, you're probably looking at needing more flow than you've got shown there, but to be fair, the filter you have is capable of running like that, but could probably do with being more powerful. I have a sump that runs my volume up to around 400 litres and my pump is rated to 3100lph, but then I like good flow.

DrRob said:

Definitely agree on the water entering the sump at the same end as it leaves the display tank. Your set up there looks like it would be very noisy.

Traditionally a sump would have the filter components right at the start of the sump tank. There are a variety of reasons for this, one of the big ones is that water entering the sump with be more oxygenated so aerobic filter bacteria will have better conditions. There's nothing wrong with the way you've done it though.

Click to expand...

Agree with the above.

Would also like to stress the fact that the sump must be able to hold enough volume from the main tank until the water level falls below your overflow in the main tank should the return pump fail.

A few changes I would make are:

1. Replace the sponge on the end of the overflow pipe with ones that are separate from it to aid maintenance when it gets clogged up.
2. Make the first chamber larger and place bioballs in there so the water falls onto/through them with a sponge over the top to catch any debris.
3. Second chamber for the planting area is fine but watch the substrate doesn't block the incoming water (another small weir would stop this happening).
4. Change the UV light above the sump to a normal T5 or similar with a spectrum suited to plant growth. If you want UV to kill off nasties then get an in-line unit on a separate loop to the sump.
5. The final chamber should be used for final polishing of the water with floss/sponges and can be used as a dosing area for chems instead of adding directly to the main tank.
6. Change the Fluval for a dedicated return pump with correct power to raise the water (head value) back to the tank and provide the circulation you want.

HTH

thanks for the advice would this way be better ? i replaced the sand with gravel and would biomax be ok ? as i already have some i already have a planted tank but i think the higher temp for the discus is killing them i only want to let java fern and moss balls grow in the sump. how much would a decent pump cost and would i be able to get rid of my canister filter once the sump has cycled ? and would i be able to use the inlet(cage)what origanaly comes with the tank to put on top of the tube that comes from the bottom of the tank to stop fish going down in to the sump ?

Almost....

The water path should ideally be:

1) Drain from main tank into 1st chamber which houses (from top to bottom) filter sponges and bioballs/ceramics
2) Flow from 1st chamber into main planted area
3) Flow from main planted area into final chamber which houses the return pump
4) Return pump sends water back to main tank

In my reef sump, which had mangrove shoots so essentially the same as what you're planning, I incorporated a slightly wider gap between the baffles of the second weir so that filter floss/carbon/phoszorb pouches, etc. could be placed in the water flow before reaching the return pump.

I'll try and find my drawing later and post it here for you.