# DIY sump photos



## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

Its still in the making, getting some bioballs


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Not sure that i really get the design of your sump since the baffles look to be at the bottom so that would force water to go over them (unless thats what you want and you have a drip tray or something) instead of making them go over then under like in most sumps


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

sean-820 said:


> Not sure that i really get the design of your sump since the baffles look to be at the bottom so that would force water to go over them (unless thats what you want and you have a drip tray or something) instead of making them go over then under like in most sumps


Oops. how can I fix that?


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Are you following a plan?

You have to be careful becase if the sump pumpp goes out water will continue to iphone unless you have preventitive measures. Most people will drill a hole in the intake pipe just abit under the water line so when power goes out it will siphone, however siphone will be lost when water reaches the hole and air gets in. Just have to make sure the sump can hold all the siphoned water that was from above the hole.

To fix the baffles you would have to remove them and reapply them. I suggest looking at alot of sumps first to get a good understandign of them sinceyou dont want them to overflow or somethign.


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

sean-820 said:


> Are you following a plan?
> 
> You have to be careful becase if the sump pumpp goes out water will continue to iphone unless you have preventitive measures. Most people will drill a hole in the intake pipe just abit under the water line so when power goes out it will siphone, however siphone will be lost when water reaches the hole and air gets in. Just have to make sure the sump can hold all the siphoned water that was from above the hole.
> 
> To fix the baffles you would have to remove them and reapply them. I suggest looking at alot of sumps first to get a good understandign of them sinceyou dont want them to overflow or somethign.


Thanks. I was following a plan and I have drilled a hole to prevent overflow


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Whoa bro, you got a recipe for disaster. You made that way more complicated than it needs to be. You dont need those baffles. I would take those out.


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## Malawi- (Oct 21, 2008)

Looks good, but a bit messy.


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Malawi- said:


> Looks good, but a bit messy.


How can you say that. This design is flawed b.c if the power went out it would flood his sump.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

like said you dont need all the baffles, but you can keep them if arranged properly. A proper arrangement would be the first section with bioballs (make a U where the sides of the u are the arqarium side wall and a baffle and the bottom is eggcrate that is simehow sitting on the baffle) then leave room under the baffle for the water to flow through into the next section. Then you may want toe baffles with one opening up and one opening down so you could hold some mechanical media in it


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

Thanks for the help everyone. I will make some adjustements and upload pics when done. but I'm gonna keep the baffles and just add another one on top so the water is forced under. And i have it drilled a hole in the suction tube to prevent overflow. The home depot bucket sump looks very neat and tidy.











SeedlessOne said:


> Whoa bro, you got a recipe for disaster. You made that way more complicated than it needs to be. You dont need those baffles. I would take those out. Just build one of thses and drop that sitting in that tank. http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-filter/111.asp Raise the bucket a few inches off your sump so your media isnt sitting in water. Man if your power went out now, you would have 20g of water on your floor. Im glad you posted a pic. Good luck, and post back when you figure out what you want to do. Just dont leave it like you have it now.


I wasn't done anyway, just posting pics of my progress


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Well if you are going to keep the baffles just make sure the water goes underneath them rather than going over the top. You want enough room in you sump to have your tank drain below the overflow and not have your sump flooded. Hope this make sense. Good luck man.


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

Got it but can I make the water go under than over cause I dont wan't to remove the baffles and replace them


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Do you plan to use any media between the baffles or what? Overall Im kinda confused on your design...What are you going to keep your bio balls in and how are you going to keep them above the water line??


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

The job of the baffles is to make the water travel through the media. If they all are sealed at the sides an bottom, the water will flow over top of them and not through any media that may be present in the sections between baffles.
The first one should definitly be elevated so water is forced to go through the bio balls to get to the next section. the other ones the next one could be left so the water has to travel up (could add a tray of media or something) then the following one shoudl make the water go underagain. You dont even need that many baffles if you have a decent plan just one section for the bioballs then mayby two more to hold some more mech media or a drip tray
you could also have a baffle attached to the bottom but have the inake go through a filter sock then over flow into the bioball section through a drip tray or something. Sumps are abit complicated since they may be fairly easy if you know what youre doing, however theyre are tons of ways that they can be setup so it makes it more complicated. Mayby go to a reef forup or somethign since they use sumps and wetdrys alot so they could probably help you more, just be sure that they know its a fw tanks as opposed to a sw.



SeedlessOne said:


> Do you plan to use any media between the baffles or what? Overall Im kinda confused on your design...What are you going to keep your bio balls in and how are you going to keep them above the water line??


 My thoughts too is that ALL baffles are siliconed to the sides and bottom and thus forcing the water to flow over all of them. If this is the case it is deffinitly wrong and would make the sump pretty useless since the water wouldnt be forced thought the media.


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

I'm glad to see that you are attempting to make your own sump, but first off go to your LFS and check out what sumps they have and sit quietly for about 5minutes per sump design and figure out how it works, then look at your design quietly for 5 minutes and figure out how it works. And you dont need that much silicone on the hoses or the baffles brother, if you need that much silicone on the hoses then something isnt right you shouldnt be leaking water in a sump setup to begin with in order to use silicone on anything other than the baffles. Good Luck keep us updated on your design and we will be glad to help with what we can, essentially what you have is like a waterfall but once the initial fill up with water in the baffled areas they will cease to flow and then you just have a waterfall.


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

Ok I understand what everyone is saying, I'm going to make a new sump tomorrow a different way. Pics coming soon



JustJoshinYa said:


> I'm glad to see that you are attempting to make your own sump, but first off go to your LFS and check out what sumps they have and sit quietly for about 5minutes per sump design and figure out how it works, then look at your design quietly for 5 minutes and figure out how it works. And you dont need that much silicone on the hoses or the baffles brother, if you need that much silicone on the hoses then something isnt right you shouldnt be leaking water in a sump setup to begin with in order to use silicone on anything other than the baffles. Good Luck keep us updated on your design and we will be glad to help with what we can, essentially what you have is like a waterfall but once the initial fill up with water in the baffled areas they will cease to flow and then you just have a waterfall.


yeah i know it was to much silicone, my tubes just kept leaking, nohing would stop them except alot of silicone


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Hey you need to buy an overflow box. Dont run a sump without one!!!!!!! Look on ebay for one. I think Im going to post a video of my sump for reference for some people. Seems like there are a lot of question a few people have.

I went ahead and made a video to show those 5g buckets for you. Good luck


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

cant you make an overflow


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Golden Pygo said:


> cant you make an overflow


Yeah you can but I wouldnt. They are pretty cheap at around 30bucks on ebay. Just buy it and save yourself a flood. This is the one thing that if not done right will cause a flood. I put a video showing my buckets, and how to build them. Its in this forum a few below this thread.


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

did you use all flexible tube? I thought that I HAD to use PVP for some stupid reason. But thanks for posting


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

Ok, I remade this. Here are some pics


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

Looks much better. Everything running smoothly? What did you do about an overflow?


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## TobiasRieper (Mar 14, 2008)

interesting, whats a bio ball?


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## SeedlessOne (Nov 21, 2006)

TobiasRieper said:


> interesting, whats a bio ball?


a plastic ball like object that is used for biomedia.


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## MiGsTeR (Jan 19, 2008)

Sorry to derail your thread but did you buy that background or dyi?


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

MiGsTeR said:


> Sorry to derail your thread but did you buy that background or dyi?


Its a DIY made poorly


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## TobiasRieper (Mar 14, 2008)

Sorry to derail, but Id thought Id ask this here instead of starting a new thread, simple one post anwser will be fine.

What is SUMP?


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

simplest definition for a sump is, a liquid containing reservoir used in a partition from the main source.

like on a car the engine block has an oil sump.


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