My first sump setup, please help!

[reefsmurf]

Hey guys,
I acquired a 45g cube Oceanic tank and using a amiracle sump tried to plumb my first sump after many years of reefing (woohoo)!!! The sump is not very big sadly, but it's not too bad.

I was wondering if someone could critique it for any design flaws (not that I gave the design all that much thought ) . My area of concern is the large amount of bubbles being introduced from the drain side (which makes some noise as a result). I am using a durso pipe that is 1.25" wide and the drain pipe/bullhead below the tank is only 1".. perhaps that is a mistake?

The other area of concern is how high the water is on the pump side of the sump. Granted, the baffles aren't siliconed in -). Water level used to be much lower in the pump area, and the drain actually couldn't keep up when the tank didn't have enough water, but now that I've really filled it with more water it seems like it no longer works like i see it work in other people's sumps where the water level is lower in the pump area?

Lastly, I'm worried that if the drain clogs I will have a major flood. the Durso already has some big eggcrate in it but what else can I do? I know Jennifer has some magic contraption.. maybe I should look into that?


Plumbing wise: I need to clamp the spaflex and I haven't glued the nozzle hose pieces together but the pvc is glued together with the exception of the pump adaptor and the pvc end that connects to it.

Thanks for any help: here's the pics:

Overall setup:

Front view of sump, 1inch drain left, 3/4 return right. Hard to see but two homemade acrylic baffles that extend to the bottom, and a middle one that doesn't (comes built into the sump already). As you can see, water level is completely even

 

[reefsmurf]

A ton of bubbles from the drain:

Durso is oversized, perhaps?

Rear view of sump.. better look at the baffles as well.

 

[alpha0r]

The water level will always be even as long as it is higher than the baffles that touch the bottom. You could put a filter sock over the drain to break up the bubbles if you want. You can also have the drain line go into some type of tube like a plastic cup with some LR which also helps with the bubbles. You could probably get another baffle in there if you move the pump over and make them under-over-under-over. IMHO, I think the distance between baffles should be greater where the water flows down so that the velocity is slower and the bubbles can get out easier. For example I would make them under(1")over(1.5+")under(1')over. I have also found that it works better to make the last over baffle lower than the others so that the water level is never lower than it. When the water gets lower than the last baffle it cascades over causing more bubbles and pushing them to the bottom of that section near the pump intake.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Jennifer]

Looks good for your first sump. A filter sock will stop the bubbles and help quit down the noise level.

From the pics I would think your durso looks good. Is it 1" pvc with a 3/4" bulkhead and 3/4" pvc to the sump?

Have you done a power off test to make sure that your sump can handle all of the water that siphons back down there?

The only thing I see is that the water level in the sump should be lowered a little anyways. It looks like the water level is about 1.5" above the baffle next to the skimmer. When water evaporates this level will drop until it gets to the baffle, not a big deal really. It will just cause a little fluctuation in the skimmers efficiency.

 

[Jennifer]

also is there an air vent on the top of the Durso? I could not tell from the pics.

 

[stevenp]

Or you could make a PVC bubble trap to eliminate the bubbles/noise.

 

[jbishop]

I think im going to make the bubble trap, thanks for the good idea.

 

[reefsmurf]

Thanks for all the replies! As per your advice, I'm going to try to :

- put a filter sock and if there's room put in a reverse durso but it's going to be TOUGH, pretty tight fit already.
- It is a 1.25" PVC pipe to a 1" drain/bulkhead and the drain pipes below are 1".
- I'm going to lower the amount of water in the tank.
- Yes, there's a air vent on top of the durso

Minor setback though: The tank has a very slow leak through the drain bulkhead

Ironically, I didn't touch the drain bulkhead - but did remove and put back the return bulkhead without replacing the seal, and that one is not leaking Going to have to try to remove the drain bulkhead and clean and reseal and see if that helps

 

[steevareno]

I re-used bulkhead seals and just vaselined them. Seems to have worked well. I'm using some live rock rubble for the drain to crash into. Breaks up roughly half of the bubbles. I'm liking that design from StevenP! Guess it's back to Lowe's... AGAIN!

 

[stingythingy45]

I think im going to make the bubble trap, thanks for the good idea.

I did that in my refugium.It's a little different,like a reverse durso.
It's kind of funny because it "toots" once in a while.
I suppose I could drill the hole a little bigger to stop it,but......it's kind of funny.If you're going to have a Laboratory,might as well have strange sounds also.

 

[reefsmurf]

Hey guys, don't forget the $10 off $25 coupon you can get for Lowes!

 

[reefsmurf]

Holy smokes.. after emptying most of the water out and moving the tank a little I barely was about to remove the drain bulkhead.. and it's cracked

Anybody know where to get an oceanic 1 1/4" bulkhead or have a megaflow kit lying around

 

[dondi]

steven p i gotta thank you as well

 

[MikeG]

Holy smokes.. after emptying most of the water out and moving the tank a little I barely was about to remove the drain bulkhead.. and it's cracked

Anybody know where to get an oceanic 1 1/4" bulkhead or have a megaflow kit lying around

I would bet that is a 1" bulkhead for the drain and a 3/4 for the return. I have never heard of a 1 1/4 bulkhead, they come in 1, 1.5, or 2". Durso's have a larger diameter standpipe by design compared to the male threaded end at the base. If the standpipe is 1 1/4 then the end should be 1".

 

[reefsmurf]

Hrm. you're right. The hole is 1.25" wide within the bulkhead, but it's a 1" bulkhead since the fitting that goes into it says 1". Thanks for the correction!!