Sump design

chrishaire22 · Jun 28, 2024

I'm looking for ideas on sump design. I have DIYd several sumps in the past by adding baffles to glass tanks. The difference I have now is I'm building and acrylic sump. My stand size allows me to have a large sump, 48"Lx34"Wx24"H. With it being 34" wide I feel like I would have a lot of wasted space if I just put a baffle across the width of it so I thought of making it have a front to back zig zag flow through the sump. I'm planning on having filter socks and an external sump and a fuge. I also considered using some space to build in an ato reservoir. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the layout when it's not just flowing from one end to the other. Any thoughts or experience anyone may have would be appreciated.

Dburr1014 · Jun 28, 2024

chrishaire22 said:
I'm looking for ideas on sump design. I have DIYd several sumps in the past by adding baffles to glass tanks. The difference I have now is I'm building and acrylic sump. My stand size allows me to have a large sump, 48"Lx34"Wx24"H. With it being 34" wide I feel like I would have a lot of wasted space if I just put a baffle across the width of it so I thought of making it have a front to back zig zag flow through the sump. I'm planning on having filter socks and an external sump and a fuge. I also considered using some space to build in an ato reservoir. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the layout when it's not just flowing from one end to the other. Any thoughts or experience anyone may have would be appreciated.

Instead of zig zag approach, I would baffle down the middle. Make the water run the length down the back, then run back across the front. Or visa-versa.
Now you ran 17" wide and 96" long. Lots of options.

ccajigas07 · Jun 28, 2024

chrishaire22 said:
I'm looking for ideas on sump design. I have DIYd several sumps in the past by adding baffles to glass tanks. The difference I have now is I'm building and acrylic sump. My stand size allows me to have a large sump, 48"Lx34"Wx24"H. With it being 34" wide I feel like I would have a lot of wasted space if I just put a baffle across the width of it so I thought of making it have a front to back zig zag flow through the sump. I'm planning on having filter socks and an external sump and a fuge. I also considered using some space to build in an ato reservoir. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the layout when it's not just flowing from one end to the other. Any thoughts or experience anyone may have would be appreciated.

heres the one i made 33" tho

chrishaire22 · Jun 28, 2024

Dburr1014 said:
Instead of zig zag approach, I would baffle down the middle. Make the water run the length down the back, then run back across the front. Or visa-versa.
Now you ran 17" wide and 96" long. Lots of options.

That’s something I hadn’t thought of. Would make it a much simpler design.

chrishaire22 · Jun 28, 2024

ccajigas07 said:
heres the one i made 33" tho

That’s a really sweet looking setup.

Sean_B · Jun 28, 2024

my 2 cents

chrishaire22 · Jul 18, 2024

So I got the layout figured out and plan to start gluing up the baffles in the next couple of weeks. Now I'm figuring out the plumbing. I know I'm going to go with a bean animal setup. My question is about the drains. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having the plumbing go through the bottom of the tank instead of out the back side near the bottom? On previous tanks I've always used a Durso overflow and put 90s at the bottom of the drain pipe and ran them out the back of the tank. Since I'm building this tank from scratch I can go out the back or the bottom. I'm just trying to figure out if one way is better and why. I know bottom would be 2 less bends but would it make much of a difference?

Dburr1014 · Jul 18, 2024

chrishaire22 said:
So I got the layout figured out and plan to start gluing up the baffles in the next couple of weeks. Now I'm figuring out the plumbing. I know I'm going to go with a bean animal setup. My question is about the drains. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having the plumbing go through the bottom of the tank instead of out the back side near the bottom? On previous tanks I've always used a Durso overflow and put 90s at the bottom of the drain pipe and ran them out the back of the tank. Since I'm building this tank from scratch I can go out the back or the bottom. I'm just trying to figure out if one way is better and why. I know bottom would be 2 less bends but would it make much of a difference?

Bottom is easier to Plumb and thru the back free's up space in the tank.
No difference really on "how" they work.