Sumppp Questions!!

**clainbro2** · 05-11-2011, 10:47 PM

Ok I have a bunch of questions I'm sorry I'm dumb :((

What is a refugeum (hope I spelled that right) and how does it relate to a sump?

are there stages of filtration in a sump? If so what are they?

What is everything that goes into a sump? And what is everything you need to make one besides tools and glue and things like that..
I'm going to be using a 20g and a 10g for a sump that's for a 55g tank.
any ideas on a design??
Thanks,

I'll probably have more questions after you reply.. (: just know what your getting into :)

**SmokeyCFH** · 05-11-2011, 11:40 PM

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ighlight=sumps

**TazManiac** · 05-12-2011, 12:07 AM

If you are serious about starting a salt water aquarium then you really, really need to get your hands on at least one great salt water book. This is the one that I bought years ago
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890087998
Borrow it from the library if you don't have the cash. You won't learn everything you need to know by asking a question here whenever you think of something to ask. You will never know some of the info you need and will inevitably end up with problems.

**clainbro2** · 05-12-2011, 12:47 AM

Okay thanks ill be sure to look into that, Im pretty much clear on most of the SW tank stuff(at least I think I am), Im just having trouble on the sump I'm planning on making one and I want to be crystal clear on the topic.

I am deffenitly missing things so the book will help

**funkman262** · 05-12-2011, 01:13 AM

First, you need to decide the order that the chambers will be in and figure out how large you need each chamber to be. Once you do that you would need appropriately sized glass sheets to make baffles and standard aquarium silicone to seal the baffles in place. The various stages of filtration include mechanical, chemical and biological just like in a freshwater tank. For mechanical filtration you can use filter socks or folyfiber batting depending on how the sump is designed. You'll most likely also want to use a protein skimmer to pull organics from the water column. For chemical filtration you have activated carbon, purigen, phosban or rowaphos, chemipure elite, and many others. The types of amount chemicals needed vary from tank to tank. It's probably best not to start out using any of them (except maybe a bit of carbon) and see what isn't being removed through the more natural processes. For example, if you end up getting algae because your refugium isn't removing enough phosphate from the water column then you might want to get a phosban reactor. For biological filtration you typically have your standard bioballs for converting ammonia and nitrite to nitrate and then you can use a refugium to remove nitrate, phosphate and some organics. If fuges, people often put some type of macroalgae like chaetomorpha, mangroves, miracle mud, a deep sand bed, additional live rock, or a mixture of all of the above.The fuge is also good for allowing beneficial organisms like copepods to grow which would make their way back into the tank to become fish and coral food. The order of filtration would usually go mechanical -> biological -> fuge -> chemical.

As others have stated, please do a lot of research before you jump into such a complicated part of the hobby. Saltwater is a whole new game, especially if you plan on keeping corals. It's definitely not for the faint of heart lol but it becomes much easier as you take the time to research what you need to do to develop a successful tank. There are plenty of threads out there in many saltwater-specific forums that go much more in-depth about how to design a sump. I highly recommend that you begin searching those to see what you can find. Good luck :)

**Ringo** · 05-12-2011, 02:10 AM

I considered going with a saltwater aquarium until I figured out I would have $1000 in the tank before I bought the first fish. I also was going to go with a sump tank and my biggest fear was the dreaded overflow if the power went off and came back on and caused a flood in my house. I found this site that has a very safe overflow design IMO so here is the site if you want to try and build it.

http://www.beananimal.com/projects/s...ow-system.aspx

It might be worth looking into if you are going to go with a sump.

**funkman262** · 05-12-2011, 02:53 AM

That's actually quite overcomplicated. It's nice that it's very low-profile but it's not required in order to make a flood-proof sump. I built a pvc overflow and sump out of a regular 10g tank which in total cost about maybe $30. The majority of the cost was the tank and glass for the baffles. The pvc overflow I built cost next to nothing. I designed the sump so that if the power were to go out there would be plenty of room left in there to handle the excess water. And the sump and overflow were also designed that if the overflow became clogged then there was still room left in the display tank to handle the remaining water in the return chamber of the sump. It was also designed to hold its prime after the pump was shut off and turned back on. If you do your research then you'll see that some things aren't nearly as complicated as you think. Your other option is to simply have a reputable LFS drill a hole and set up the overflow in your display tank for you. That method will cost a bit more but there's much less thinking involved. To go even further, you can just purchase a manufactured sump. Those are really expensive but if you're up for the DIY then check some of them out to help figure out how you'd like to design yours.

**Ringo** · 05-12-2011, 03:51 AM

Its low profile and very quiet from everything I have read about that system. The set up is not that complicated because you are just running pvc elbows in the overflow box each of them being at a different level so if one fails the other will take over and so forth. Everybody has their system of choice just trying to give options to anyone who wants a sump but is nervous about an overflow like I was at the time. I thought it was the best system because of the back ups that are there.