Adding a Sump

I have decided that I am going to add a sump to the tank. This sump will have to be custom-built to accomodate the unique dimensions of my stand. I have contacted several acrylic-workers, and have decided on one particular guy in Queens. I should hopefully have the sump in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I have ordered an overflow, a pump, a filter sock, and several specific piping materials. I will put everything together once all the pieces have arrived.

The sump will contain several compartments, each with its own specific purpose. First, the water will come down from the display tank (DT), and enter into the filter sock. This is just a means to keep the "gunk" to a minimum. From the fiter sock, the water will flow into the influent chamber, where I will move the protein skimmer and the heater. After the water is skimmed, it will flow under a weir into a chamber where I will have golf-ball sized pieces of live rock. This rubble-rock will serve as an additional bio-filter of sorts. From that section, the water will flow over a weir and into a bubble trap section. This will keep all of the bubbles from the skimmer out of the DT. From the bubble trap, the water will overflow into a refugium section. The refugium is a "refuge" for small critters like copepods to build up a colony without being eaten. In the refugium, I will have a remote deep sand bed (for increased denitrification) as well as macro-algae. The macro-algae will uptake nutrients, such as nitrates, from the water. From the refugium, the water will overflow into an effluent chamber, where I will have a pump to pump the water back up to the DT. In that chamber, I will also put my auto-topoff float switches. Additionally, I will have the suction end of my cannister filter. The cannister filter is basically going to act as a phos-ban reactor, where I will have GAC and GFO (see older posts about those) for additional water polishing. I will discharge the cannister filter contents back to the sump intake (like a mini-recycle section). This will allow the bubble trap to catch all of those pesky bubbles from the cannister filter.

One additional benefit of having a sump is that the system will contain a larger volume. I will be increasing the volume of the system by approximately 15 gallons. This means I can have more of a bioload for the same size tank - meaning more fish, corals, etc. For now, I still plan on maxing out at around 8 fish, but you never know what can happen in the future.

Once I get all of the supplies in, and start assembling, I will post some picture of the progress...