# DIY Sump for 150 gallon tank



## AKnickolai (Nov 30, 2012)

I have been debating how I want to filter a 150 gallon tank that I am setting up, and I have decided to try a sump style filter. It was either this or have some Frankenstein set up involving multiple canisters and powerbeads, which just seams to clutter the tank. I plan on using an old 29 gallon tank and will have the required glass baffles cut buy a local glass shop, then I will silicone them in place. I've attached a sketch of what I am proposing because I know some of you out there have built your own sump filters out there. I did design it so that if any "stage" clogged it would just overflow and bypass that stage, it is basically a wet/dry with much more mechanical filtration than a store bought unit and I still have a 12inx12in box at the end to house my main sump pump, some titanium heaters and a power head for a CO2 reactor. The cover will be made of acrylic since it is easier for me to drill and I may go through some trial and error with those penetrations. Pump will be sized to provide ~1000gph working flow to the tank. Any thoughts on what I am missing or suggestions?


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## DerekFF (May 24, 2011)

Looks good. Will work fine

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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

should work fine.
I just added a 30ppi foam panel in my first DIY and LOVE not using a canister. Similar design but using baskets between the divider panels. 

More costly for the larger pieces of foam but it eliminates more splash just using flow through foam panels. Two panels coarse to fine seems OK here but still tuning things and using lower flow rates (less power used on pumps)
2 & 3" widths of 15, 30 & 40ppi foam from AngelsPlus

:smile: hope you post a a thread on the build because freshwater sump threads were hard to find when I built mine.

Shows the final divider placement w/o media baskets


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## AKnickolai (Nov 30, 2012)

I will post a better picture of my design and what I end up with for sure, the more information we can get out there the better! The thread covering the construction of the sump you pictured was all I could find in a few days of searching. I'm glad to hear it is working well for you, that's inspiring for sure!


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## jimbocurtice (May 3, 2012)

30 gallon is, in my opinion, too small. Your sump as to be able to hold the water that will flow in if there is a power break and also has to be a able to hold enought water so that you dont have to worry too much about evaporation. I wouldn't go under a 50 gal sump for a tank your size, and it would give you a lot more room for your heater, reactor, etc.


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## ftwchopper (Nov 12, 2011)

1000 gph return pump...your going to need some very large overflows to prevent cavitation and excess noise.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

jimbocurtice said:


> 30 gallon is, in my opinion, too small. Your sump as to be able to hold the water that will flow in if there is a power break and also has to be a able to hold enought water so that you dont have to worry too much about evaporation. I wouldn't go under a 50 gal sump for a tank your size, and it would give you a lot more room for your heater, reactor, etc.


Sort of have to disagree with this and needing a 50gal sump on a 150gal tank. It all comes down to how and where you put the overflow drains on how much water the sump "has to hold". Put them 3 " under the water, and yes, you will need the normal sump capacity plus probably 30+ gal for that 3" of water to drain out, but put them in a corner overflow with 3/4" teeth just breaking the surface, and only 3/4" of water would drain down in case of a power failure. 

My last tank was a 125gal with about a 22gal acrylic sump plus bioballs, foam, etc, so less room than that and there was no way to flood it. Two corner overflows with teeth and standoff tubes. Even if the water drained through the bottom bulkheads where the standoff tubes sat (which is would slowly) only the contents of the overflow boxes would drain, which was a few gallons in each. It's easy to figure out and mark your safe line on a sump to figure out how much to fill to hold the sump water, and whatever overflows without being able to drain the tank.

Now if you're just using a DIY overflow with a tube and no siphon break, you can drain a lot of water. Corner siliconed in acrylic overflows, no, you can only drain up to the teeth level from the main tank and that's it, plus the contents of the overflow boxes themselves.


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## mcfly84 (Nov 13, 2012)

Honestly you drew your plans out perfect. Only question I have is, are you going to be using a submersable pump or a plumbed external pump? If I can find pics of my stepdads old 180 gal I'll post them for you. Your illustration nails our old setup almost to a "T" only we came out the side of the sump with piping to the return pump instead of using a submersable pump, but then again this was 10yrs ago. The main differance was reliability and diversity in options and costs.

I'm going to put the rest in caps just because this is the very most important thing when using sumps.

PLEASE PLEASE BEFORE PUTTING ANYTHING IN THE TANK OTHER THAN SUBSTRATE AND DECOR FLIP THE SWITCH TO GET YOUR FULL FILTRATION CIRCULATION GOING THEN KILL THE POWER AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE WATER LEVEL IN THE TANK AND SUMP AT THE SAME TIME BE SURE TO TAKE NOTE OF THE WATER LEVELS AND WHEN YOUR SUMP IS ALMOST FULL CLICK THE POWER BACK ON. NOW ONCE YOU'VE MARKED YOUR TANK LEVEL MIN AND SUMP MAX GO ANOTHER 1" ABOVE THE TANK MIN(WHEN THE SUMP IS ALMOST FULL) AND DRILL A 1/8TH INCH HOLE IN ANY RETURN LINES YOU HAVE. THIS WILL BE YOUR MOST RELIABLE SIPHON BREAK. 

I've had people I've known personally that trusted siphon break systems and ended up with half their tank water on the floor. 

ONE MORE NOTE TO THAT METHOD OF SIPHON BREAK IS TO CHECK FOR ALGEA GROWTH AS IT WILL CLOG OVER TIME.


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## animalmgc (Apr 16, 2009)

how did this work out for you as I'm thinking of building a 29g sump for my 180 I just bought


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

animalmgc said:


> how did this work out for you as I'm thinking of building a 29g sump for my 180 I just bought


I would use a larger tank for the sump if you can. The smaller the sump in proportion to the tank the more problematic evaporation becomes.


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