External Sump: How Much Flow?

[Spinal]

So I'm in the process of making my sump (which is actually fairly large!) but, give space constraints, I'm putting the sump ABOVE the aquarium as a pose to below it.

The idea is: drill a hole in the wall behind the aquarium, pass pipes into the garage (heated, behind the wall). On the top shelf (which is held on by 16 M10x10 wall bolts and is made of 2 bars of 4"x6" timber) and into the sump at the top which is drilled.

I'll pump the water UP to the sump, and using an overflow connector, let gravity bring it back down. This way, I don't need to drill my tank (whos glass is almost an inch thick).

Question is: how much water should I be pumping up there? From the bottom of my tank to the top of the sump is roughly a 2m raise; while from the top of my tank to the bottom of the sump is roughly 1m/1.3m. The tank is a 4'x1'x2' tank; and the sump is either a 3'x1'x1' or a 4x1'x1' (haven't decided yet... this will also be my marine sump when I swap so I'm trying to plan ahead)

Eheim's filter for a 92 gal tank pumps about 164GPH. So should I be looking at roughly twice the volume of the tank every hour? So for a 60gal tank like mine, I'de be looking at 120GPH pumped up; and given the head of roughly 1.5m/1.7m from pump to nozzle I should be looking at a 400GPH@1m-head pump; right?

Michele

 

[afishdude]

thats a big sump tank. normaly its 10-30% of the tank volume for the sump. for example a 75g would use a 30g or so sump. i have seen 100g with 10g sumps before.

 

[Spinal]

I know Thats why I'm considering using the 3ft tank... but my idea is, a huge sump can't hurt right? Overfiltration is never a problem

I'm thinking on these lines
| Water in | Coarse Sponge | free space 1 | little-ball media | free space 2 | free space 3 | Return Hole |

As well as having my eHeim sucking water in from the free space 2, and pumping it back into free space 1. (and maybe adding CO2 on free space 3, just before it goes back into the tank or maybe putting the fluval 2 i have there with just filter floss to polish the water and the UV filter once I get the bulb replaced).

Michele

 

[SkiFletch]

Usually you should be looking to push 3-5 times the display tank volume through the sump per hour for filtration. More can't really hurt. How are you going to do the overflow from the over head "sump" back into the tank? I'd hope you'd drill that one?

 

[Spinal]

Usually you should be looking to push 3-5 times the display tank volume through the sump per hour for filtration. More can't really hurt. How are you going to do the overflow from the over head "sump" back into the tank? I'd hope you'd drill that one?

Thanks for the info! and yes, I will be drilling the sump. I'm just not too happy with drilling my tank for 2 reasons:
- ludicrously thick glass (almost an inch thick)
- fish in it


I just realised the eHeim wet/dry I bought last weekend needs to be 100-120cm below the base of the water, so I'll be mounting a second shelf for that in the garage at the right height...

My only concern is my tetra's getting sucked into the pump

Michele