I have purchased and installed the sk60 sump and wanted to give my thoughts on it to others who are thinking about using it for their build. Since this is a big decision and is not a cheap one I believe my experience with it can help someone else out.
First I will say that the build quality is excellent and the color options really make this sump look amazing. The easy access to skimmer and fugue compartments and the cover plates to help with evaporation really help when it’s time for maintenance. Unfortunately that’s about the end of the positives. The sump is poorly designed in terms of how much flow it can handle. They recommend this for 300 gallon tanks which need higher gph flow through the sump in order to get rid of the floating particles we all hate. The flow rate im able to achieve is 800-1000 gph using the two clarisea 5000. I have tried playing around with it and changing things up but still this will add little flow rate at expense of burning through filter paper fast. On the website it states flows up to 2600 gph which for me was the selling point. I didn’t expect 2600 but I figured I would get at least 2000 Gph Through this sump. Next between the different compartments the water flows through many little slots. The problem here is they start to get clogged especially in the fuge area and especially if you have a grow light there. This results in extra maintenance I could avoid if they where bigger. Another issue is the return pump compartment. The water on top in that compartment is completely stagnant which causes a bunch of particles To just accumulate at the top surface level. My fix to it was installing a small pump to move the water a bit. The issue with that is micro bubbles getting in the return pump. Overall I will say I had really high hopes for this sump which where a complete letdown. i will add more to this as time goes on and if I can figure out any fixes to some of the issues.
First I will say that the build quality is excellent and the color options really make this sump look amazing. The easy access to skimmer and fugue compartments and the cover plates to help with evaporation really help when it’s time for maintenance. Unfortunately that’s about the end of the positives. The sump is poorly designed in terms of how much flow it can handle. They recommend this for 300 gallon tanks which need higher gph flow through the sump in order to get rid of the floating particles we all hate. The flow rate im able to achieve is 800-1000 gph using the two clarisea 5000. I have tried playing around with it and changing things up but still this will add little flow rate at expense of burning through filter paper fast. On the website it states flows up to 2600 gph which for me was the selling point. I didn’t expect 2600 but I figured I would get at least 2000 Gph Through this sump. Next between the different compartments the water flows through many little slots. The problem here is they start to get clogged especially in the fuge area and especially if you have a grow light there. This results in extra maintenance I could avoid if they where bigger. Another issue is the return pump compartment. The water on top in that compartment is completely stagnant which causes a bunch of particles To just accumulate at the top surface level. My fix to it was installing a small pump to move the water a bit. The issue with that is micro bubbles getting in the return pump. Overall I will say I had really high hopes for this sump which where a complete letdown. i will add more to this as time goes on and if I can figure out any fixes to some of the issues.
