My Homemade Filtration System With A Sump Tank

[bb1991]

Before you guys start criticizing i just want readers to know that i was doing mainly for experience. I realize sump tanks are for aquariums 60 inches+ or for saltwater aquariums. I wanted to find out how cheap and quiet i can really make it using my head-noodle and quite a bit of web/youtube searching. I also realize that this isn't really a step-by-step guide or a diary of my setup. I honestly wanted to make a photo diary of what i did, but there was just so much trial and error i kept forgetting to take pictures of the piece i was going to use. And once i do use it there's always this subtle feeling of "It's not perfect yet" that i would get, which leads to me thinking its not worth taking a picture. At least i have my memory to fall back on. lol
 
Firstly, this is my Freshwater tank (36"L x 20"W x 18"H) with some leftover pieces of driftwood in there. (Had no where to store them in the meantime..so might aswell make a pile of rubbish)

 
This was the first day i got my tank, and of course the first thing i did was...LEAVE IT FOR A FRIGGIN MONTH!!
 

 
So much detritus it was unbelievable sea monkeys weren't born in there. The reason for leaving it was..just busy with Uni, plus i didn't want to rush anything, since the tank is next to my computer and the bed.
 
So the next picture i guess i cleaned the fish tank plus got my lighting up. Can see that my overflow box has already been setup as well.
 

 
On a side note...wanted to show you what a switch on the otherside of the lamp could do. Was a surprise to me, didn't realize this was there.
 

 
Anyways, this seems to be my first prototype of my overflow box. It was neat, but LOUD AS HELL!!
By the way, the overflow box was made from Tesco's plastic containers, an acrylic sheet and super glue.

 
This is my first prototype of my sump. 

 
This is my homemade filtration to date; after a few weeks or so from the picture above.
 

 
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you grow driftwood! JK, It turns out that there were three main noise disturbances from my first prototype. The gurgle in the overflow box, the splashing in the drain pipe, and the splashing from the drainpipe's mouth to the sump tank. Cured the first problem with a stockman standpipe. Second problem cured using hose and ditched the pvc's. (The sound came from the 90 degree bend.) And the third problem cured with some bioballs and a T-pipe (dunno watcha-ma-call-it). Anyways, that was my small adventure in a nutshell. I know it looks like crap but at least i can sleep like a baby now, not only because there was no sound, but i kind of saved a fortune on this instead of getting a ready-made filtration system. I'll find some nice laminated wood panel, or somethin to cover up the sump underneath. Should look a lot better afterwards. lol
 
If anyone is curious about anything in these photos, i'll be glad to answer them. If you think you can also suggest anything to me that would make my setup even quieter (although i doubt that its possible, cuz the only sound i here right now is a few tricklings of water) i would love to hear them, cuz if its something i haven't tried. I WILL TRY IT!! This is my experiment tank after all.

 

[TallTree01]

Good job mate. The tank looks cool in the blue light.

 

[bb1991]

Thanks TallTree01, nice to see the first reply being a compliment. Was actually expecting some criticism, but your reply i'll take it!
 
PS: If anybody was wondering about the lighting. In the first picture i used a small LED lamp that has three dials on them. They are Red, Green, and Blue, and can be adjusted freely to complete the color spectrum. A pretty cool toy for somebody who likes playing with lighting. Not boasting or anything, just telling you guys that its out there and pretty wicked if you normally have your tank in a low-light room most of the time.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Well done mate, very clean sump build! I 'loled' at the growing driftwood
I tried a sump on my 50L FW tank and yours is one heck of a lot better than the one I made haha. I honestly don't think sumps are only limited to XL tanks or SW tanks, its all a matter of preference and experimentation to see what works best with your setup. 
But very keen to see pics of the tank when its all setup and running!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Great idea! Looks great!
Just curious....how much did you save by doing the sump?
 
Looking forward to pics of it running.

 

[bb1991]

Well I live in Thailand, and most of the legit canister filters come from Japan. So the canister filters are usually sold around $100-$120 (US), plus a nice, slick overflow, $30 (US). So if i didn't dillydally with my setup i guess i would've saved about half the overall cost. But i did go a little over half, since the main purpose of this experiment was to dillydally, lol.
 
Oh and yes its also already running. I kind of want to take a really short video instead of a picture of the running system, also to show how quiet it is!! (let me get back to you on that though, gots no vid option on me didge cam, lol)

 

[DrRob]

Nah, you don't need a huge tank or a marine for a sump.
 
I sump filter my 36x18x24 and it's far messier than yours.
 
2 suggestions that may help with noise (and safety).
 
1 - 2 pipes into that overflow, you're fine until something drops into the pipe and blocks the flow. I'd probably sponge filter them for the same reason.
 
2 - If you add a second tank to sump pipe, in full open mode entering lower than the standpipe one (no standpipe as you've got in your first picture) and valve it's flow down to the level that a small amount of water goes down the standpipe run then you have redundancy if one blocks (any block in the tank to sump pipe will overflow the tank) and you also get a closed (no air trickle noise) system for most of your flow, so is generally quieter.

 

[bb1991]

Thank you DrRob for giving me suggestions, i really appreciate it. I've taken the initiative for your first suggestion and added 3 additional 'U-tubes' (i guess that's what people call it) from the inner to the outer overflow box. As for your second suggestion i didn't quite get what your suggesting, but i think your implying that if my drainpipe from the main to the sump gets clogged then my room will be flooded. For this problem i've taken it as the number one precaution while building the overflow box and had already cured it with separating the sump into sections. From the picture with the sump tank in full view, i have tried taking out all the U-tubes to simulate a clog and let the pump run. The section with the submerged pump in it will get emptied into the main tank and fortunately no overflow anywhere. The only problem is like you said where i don't have a backup drainpipe, because once the section with the pump gets emptied, the pump will eventually overheat due to lack of water. I'll definitely address this issue in the next few days. As for noise problems i have already added a stockman stand pipe with a valve on the air hose, which equals completely silent.
 
I know this is a little out of the ordinary, but the only noise disturbance i have right now is the sound of pump. I was thinking of covering the section with the pump with acrylic sheets or something and basically seal it off.
 
Has anyone tried killing the pump noise and had any success? Please i would like to know

 

[Shaddex]

How and what media have you put into the sump ?
Any chance of a Sump Close up piccy as Im looking to do the same.

 

[bb1991]

Since this tank i didn't put much thought as to what the tank was going to be, I'll generally make it an easy planted tank with a school of tetras, ottos, a few rainbow forktails, harlequin rasboras, and a handful of cherry shrimp. (i'll change the theme soon enough, just for shitz&gigglez) But i basically dumped a bucket load of pumice stones in the middle section of the sump to get the biological part of my filter. And since this tank will initially be for small fish, i don't need to place my thoughts heavily on the mechanical filter. The first section right now has floating bioballs and a layer of batting underneath to kill the drainpipe noise. Another layer of batting lying on the floor as well and that's basically it.
 
 I used pumice stones because i had some leftover and they're cheap as hell here. They also reduce pH fluctuations which are good for small fish. (But my buddy was telling me its good to have pH fluctuations for larger fish, cuz pH fluctuations also happens in nature) Honestly i could have put anything in the sump since there's so much more space compared to a canister filter. I just beat quality by sheer quantity.
 
All i can suggest is that it depends what tank the sump is for. For example, if you noticed that you're overflow box sucks (as in the action not about the quality, lol) particulates and leftover matter from the tank (since your fish poops crazy a lot, lol) then you can adjust the first section to be a bit larger than other sections to incorporate a larger mechanical filter section.
 
I hope this answers your question, if you still want the picture i can post it for you, but it doesn't seem worthy of a picture honestly. To sum up all the (too-long-not-reading) explanations i did above, i can answer your question in one sentence basically. 'An Ef load of pumice stones, lol'    I'm just really talkative sometimes