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[Thalamus]

Vertical Sump Design - Is it possible?

Hello All,

As anybody ever come across a vertical sump design? - Anybody ever tried it? - See any possible problems with having a vertical sump?

I only ask because I have a limited space horizontally and throught "maybe I could design a vertical sump".

[Thalamus]

BUMP - Or should I say SUMP! :p

[Louey]

I'm not quite sure that I understand the question. Could you sketch it out for us?

Do you mean having a sump sitting next to the aquarium?

Louey

[Thalamus]

Sorry about the delay!!

I think I have managed to solve my own problem.

My cabinet is set out like this

| CABINET | --SHELF AREA-- | CABINET |

The cabinet areas have more veritcal room then they do horizontal.... So I thought I could utilise the left hand side cabinet with a vertical sump.

After designing different sumps, lots of head scratching, I came up with two ideas.

1. Trawl the web to find a door that matches the wood of the cabinet, place a door over the shelf area.... hey ho, slap in a horizontal sump.

2. Have a "compartment 1" in the left hand cabinet... run a pipe around the back of the cabinet into the right hand cabinet into "compantment 2 & 3"

What do you guys think?

[Louey]

Generally speaking, the sump needs to be below the tank in order for the tank to drain back into the sump. If they are side by side, this may be hard to achieve.

Dupa, what's your take on this?

Louey

[Thalamus]

Indeed, the aquarium will be above the cabinet, let me attempt to poorly illustrate my ideas:

IDEA 1
(This idea is to place a cabinet door over the shelf area - Then cut through the side panels (internally) and then strengthen the cabinet with some additional well placed struts)
--------------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------|
|------------A Q U A R I U M------------|
|------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------------
| Cabinet | --- Cabinet --- | Cabinet |
| ---------------- SUMP -----------------|
|-----------|------------------|----------|
--------------------------------------------


IDEA 2 - (The pipe comes out and round the back of the cabinet)

--------------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------|
|------------A Q U A R I U M------------|
|------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------------
| Cabinet | - Shelf Area - | Cabinet |
|-SUMP1-|-------PIPE------|-SUMP2-|
|----------|------------------|----------|
--------------------------------------------

[Louey]

Those look like pretty standard set-ups.

All you need is a reef-ready tank, or an overflow box with sipphine tubes that hangs on the back of a non reef-ready tank. Then you need a pump in the sump to bring the water back up to the tank.

Reef Ready tanks are the best way to go.

Louey