Building my own sump

[4DDM]

Hi all, some may have seen my post earlier in the week. I have done a massive amount of reading on building sumps, filters and generally setting up a marine tank. I have decided to go with a FOWLR and after 6-12 months of success (hopefully) I will look into some simple corals.

I plan to build a sump into one of the compartments bellow my 210 litre RENA tank. I am not sure what the volume of this will be yet, but my question is on filter best practices. I get the impression that everyone has different views and there is often no right way of doing things. I just wondered if there is anything I should avoid?

My plan at the moment is to have one large return pump to the tank with 2 or 3 ball valves on to allow water through a protein skimmer, wet\dry filter compartment and a UV steriliser. Is there any order that water should be passed through the various stages or can they all be independent with different flow rates to suite the type of filter?

A limiting factor is the design of my RENA stand, it has 2 medium sized compartments rather that 1 large.

Would it be possible to upload the design on my tank and sump for members to comment on?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[RamJet]

Sounds like your on the right track, I would be interested in seeing your designs having that style stand. The way I have mine set up is skimmer, live sand filter, UV, then returned to the tank. You may want to think about lining both compartments with glass and drilling so water can pass between the two. You use PVC pipe to conect the to compartments together.

 

[4DDM]

Thanks for the feedback RamJet. I have toyed with the idea of 2 glass sumps drilled with a flow between, but I am leaning towards a sump on the left piped off to a pump in the right. This will be a massive pump capable of pushing water back up to the tank and a tap off through a proteing skimmer (also on the right) and then possibly through a wet\dry sat above the sump. I may then run a second tap off to pass water at a slower rate throught a UV.... I then want to be able to use carbon every so often but may use existing external filter to put carbon in.

It is all up in the air at the moment. I will draw up some definative plans over Christmas in MS Visio and upload them for you comments.

Thanks,
Adam