mrramsey's 72gal Bowfront with Sump Project

[mrramsey]

Another view of the sump intake


Looking through the tank... Don't worry the glass will get painted black


Rear of the tank opposite side... I will be adding some bracing to the drains between the back rail of the stand for support.

[mrramsey]

I'm loving this set up, thinking that my future show tank is gonna be like this (either a 120 bow or 72 bow)

I will def be recruiting you help for sump build etc

I have it all drawn up in autocad and you are welcome to use them!

[KevinVA]

Like I said before, this is one of the cleanest looking sumps I've ever seen. Very well thought/planned out. Exceptional work, Mike. Love it.

[Cliff]

I love a good plumbing project

Are you going with 2 main 3/4 drain lines and one back-up ? It's hard for me to tell just by the picks alone. Also, I thought you were planning a by-pass for your return line, or did I miss that ?

[mrramsey]

Yes Cliff, there are 2 main 3/4" drains and one 3/4" emergency drain. I am doing the bypass as well. I was short one 45 degree fitting that i needed to finish. Will button that up tomorrow.

[mrramsey]

Like I said before, this is one of the cleanest looking sumps I've ever seen. Very well thought/planned out. Exceptional work, Mike. Love it.

Thanks. Kevin! Thanks goes to all of you guys on the forums for answering all of my questions

[Cliff]

Yes Cliff, there are 2 main 3/4" drains and one 3/4" emergency drain. I am doing the bypass as well. I was short one 45 degree fitting that i needed to finish. Will button that up tomorrow.

Nice,... I'm looking forward to more up-dates

[mrramsey]

Ok folks .. time to put your thinking caps on... I need to run out and pick up a couple misc items at the hardware store to brace the lines. I started to think more about the bypass line. (see the tee on the pump)



I haven't seen any information as to where I should route the bypass line to?

1. Dump right back into the pump chamber
2. Dump into the equipment chamber
3. Dump all the way back to the inlet chamber

I am thinking of just dumping to the equipment chamber. Since the water is from the return line it has already been processed and does not require further filtration I think going back to the inlet has no benefit. Dumping back into the pump chamber seems to me like it would just slow down the flow of fresh filtered water, and or could possibly cause enough turbulence to create air bubbles that would be problematic in the display tank. Anyone care to chime in with their $0.02?

[KevinVA]

Personally, I agree with your analysis. The equipment chamber makes the most sense. There's a good chance that any bubbles created by dumping it into the pump chamber will get sucked into the pump. It's not going to cause any big issues... just an annoyance. You could do the inlet chamber and it wouldn't hurt anything. Nothing wrong with extra-filtered water, and nothing wrong with letting it flow over your beneficial bacteria. I think inlet or equipment should be fine.

[Cliff]

Rout the flow from the bypass into the same chamber as the return pump. Keep the return line below the water line so you won't have create any bubbles. Your pump would need to suck in air to create bubbles that way. I have done two sumps like that and it works a lot better than forcing more water through your bubble traps from one compartment to another

With the ¾ to ½ inch spacing between the baffles before the last compartment, and the last of those baffles creating a water-fall when evaporation lowers the level in that compartment, you will most likely create a lot of bubbles to be sucked up by your return pump if you were to increase the flow through the whole sump.

You can see in the below pic how I had made a bypass on one of my sumps