Anyone running a sump for their Freshwater?

[tracym73]

Hi All,

Just wondering how the fresh water sumps are going. We are just finishing the flooring in the room the Red Sea Reefer 170 is going in so I am almost ready to start putting the sump together and it would be good to know what you think works well in yours and what you would change.

@boshk - I think I will be stealing a few of your ideas. I am replacing the filter sock with a cup and adding the foams and floss to that. Hadn't considered using the cup for biomedia, I was going to use K1 media in one of the remaining chambers. Other than that it will just be a heater and a UV that I have already.

 

[madmark285]

I just setup up a 75 gallon tank with a sump. I have no desire for a large saltwater tank, adding a protein skimmer was not an issue.

From another project, I had sheets of PVC left over so I made my own sump. I would not recommend doing this, just buy an glass aquarium during the $1/gallon sales at your LFS or PetCo.

The main filter chamber is 15.5" x 8" x 15" tall, it has two foam blocks and a Disposable filter pad on top. Currently it has a layer of activate carbon between the foam blocks. For the two smaller chambers, one is used for the heater and the other one has a 14"x15" foam block. I may add CO2 in the future so I did not make a trickle filter.

I made many mistakes building this, the big one was not going to reef sites for information and help. I love the reef guys, they are so high tech! My Durso drains didn't work (too small of return lines) so I replumbed to a Herbie system which now works great! I also miscalculated the amount of water drained to the sump when the pump is off, the pump section only has about 6" of water while running. Since the sump is made out of PVC, I can easily add to the pump section if needed.

Next to this tank, I have room for a 20 and 29 gallon tank. The plan is to use the sump filter for all three tanks. With shut off values, I can isolate the smaller tanks if needed. I still have lots of room to increase the bio-media, I may add some bio-balls in the future.

I love the sump system, my next display tank will be a 75 gallon African cichlid (Mbuna) tank with a sump, this one may use a trickle filter.