designing a sump

[Detritivore]

hello,
in general what should i keep in mind when designing a sump? how deep should the water be to prevent air from being sucked up by the return pump? how many chambers do i have? what is a good baffle pattern?
-thanks

[Orion76]

How long is a piece of string?

More info required such as, what skimmer do you use, how big is your tank, how much room do you have for your sump, what return pump do you use?

[moonpod]

Bare minimum IMO is this. A chamber to handle your drains. A chamber to hold volume/be a fuge. A chamber that is baffled off for your return pump bulkheads. Minimum 3 baffles. Depending on what's between the drain chamber and your pump chamber you may only need 3 baffles (well really 2 is the minimum, but for bubble control I consider 3 to be the minimum.

Ideally, plumb in bulkheads for "you never know" pump hook ups and so you can drain the thing.

My current sump has a drain section with bulkheads. One bulkhead is connect to a small pump that feeds my skimmer from this section. Skimmer also empties here. All water then goes through my 'fuge section/volume section. This area also has a probe holder rack. 3 baffles and then my return bulkheads (2 of 'em, one in use).

[GTR]

How long is a piece of string?

Timon... One of my favorite responses. Never heard it from the other side of the world though.

The past two displays I've set up I first had the tank built and then the stand. After that I designed the sump on paper and then built a life size model using corragated box board and a hot glue gun. If you have all your support equipment that model allows you to place everything where it will be and solve any space issues before the real thing is done. I then passed off that prototype to the builder to duplicate so we both knew what I wanted.

This won't solve problems with flow dynamics. My challenge in sump design is how to combat salt creep in the section taking the overflow from the tank.

SteveU

[Orion76]

Building the sump from cardboard is a great idea, it often looks so much different IRL than on paper!

[moonpod]

A final note is that IMO, as a generality, try to make your sump as big as possible within your space constraints b/c well, more volume is more volume. Also a "big" sump makes some of the things you worry about moot (like overflow volume, space for "stuff") etc.... That being said, for most home systems you gotta plan carefully. For my next tank, unfortunately EVERYTHING has to fit under the tank. I am not allowed to place ANYTHING "next" or "behind", etc... So it's all gotta be..."just right".

[Detritivore]

a sump models a great idea!

max space i can fit is maybe 36" depending on the sand...i can make it quite wide though...

my skimmer does not need to be insump, it will probably be gravity fed...

since the tank will be BB i was thinking about making the sump a detritus settling area...how does that sound?