Ted,

Yes, the boxes are pretty full. You could put a slim heater in there too I guess.

I just extended the original pipe with a coupler and PVC piece and that made the box even more full of water, which does reduce the fall from the overflow. MUCH quieter as well. Very noticable from before.

The water in the box spills through the sponge down the 1" intake to the sump.....

Jason,

Yes that I think is what you want. That is a common sump design. Many at the LFS will be similar.............

Most of the store bought have a similar design. Some of the better ones have slidable trays for the media that can be easily slid out and cleaned.

They sometime too have an airstone to supply oxygen to the bio balls. We do NOT want that feature lol

I have something like that but with TWO towers. My main pump sits to the right of this in the sump. I have a lot of sponges in there as well to cushion the pump, reduce noise and vibration, and provide additional bacterial and mechanical filtration. A trifecta!


Later,

BTW, you can use a series of larger PVC tubes for media, or hydroponics or the 6" PVC for the Sock filters and cap them with a good seal by hand, drill some holes to allow water out the bottom.

Place these tubes in the sump (say a plain old glass tank).

Alternatively, you can use the glass tank and some plate glass or some Acrylic for the top with some silicone rubber lining to clamp on the "Acrylic lid".

The degassing occurs in two places mostly: the over box and is the section where all that water comes crashing into the sump(sock area or wet/dry). If that area is sealed, then you will have all that CO2 redissolve back into the water, the only way out for the CO2 at that point.

A hofner Gruggle buster, stockman standpipe etc, and about a 4-10 cm drop at most in the over flow box is ideal.

Then a sealed sump section, with a sock, followed by a lot of biomedia. I generally use a sponge + Zeolite/lava/Activated carbon etc.

I place the heater near the intake for return pump along with the CO2.
From there, you can post filter using an Ocean clear 25 or 40 st ft cartiage.

The only other large area for CO2 loss is the surface of the tank, but keep it moving good, just not breaking the surface.

This is about you'd need.
You can plumb the OC separately from the sump loop with another set of holes like I have for my canister system here.

Or you can a sump + canister system linked in the same system.
For larger tanks, say 180 gal or more, using both and using 2 pumps allows for more flow without too much more noise and cost relative to using one big pump.
Eg 2 of the Iwaki 40 RT's vs a RT55, or 70, 100 etc.

Then if one system slows down or fails, you have a back up.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom et al,

I think we're really close to finishing the main schematic (PDF, 1.1MB).

I highlighted in red some items in table on the left that I did not have answers for as yet (or missed, or misunderstood). I will fill them in as I get the information.

For this particular schematic, I left off the sump we had been discussing, as I am getting a little confused about how it fits in. Particularly how, if Tom has the drain open and in use at the bottom left-rear of the tank, he would use an overflow and sump as the "source" to drive the Iwaki pump and the Ocean Clear filters... I am a little confused about the sump aspect still, as I have no direct hands-on experience with one as yet, so I know I am missing details in the discussion here.

If I can get all the information and a "thumbs up" from Tom, I will make the final PDF and any other desired formats available. (While I cannot promise it at this time, I may be able to make use of a new printer in my lab to make prints for a fee at the schematics 22x17in size for anyone interested... I will have to ask the professor whose printer it is if she's open to that idea. Funds would reimburse paper and ink costs to her.)

Jason,


I am pretty sure that Tom uses the CPR overflow kits, just not sure on the size/model he is using here.

Here is a link with a bunch of their models:

Aqaurium Overflow Box - We have Full line of CPR Aquarium Overflow Boxes

There is no builtin overflow (as we can plainly see) and Tom does mention earlier in original starfire post that he can disconnect the sump as desired.


This indicates that he has a sump pump of around 800gph to send this back to the tank. What type and size he will have to say.........

So, he connects the overflow to the tank side or back and that skims the surface AND FEEDS the sump.

Just not sure yet how he plumbs the sump into the rest of it.

I guess some ball valves and tees so he can run it or not. I ASSUME he can run the OC and the Iwaki loop independently of the sump, but not sure.

Tom,

Any chance you can post a pic or two of your plumbing work for us?

Did I get at least some of it right?

Thanks,