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Ive deceided to set up a sump as i'm started to get irritated with all the power heads and stuff in the tank.

Questions:
1. Do I have to drill the tank? can I run some kind of pump/cannister to draw the water down to the sump?

2. What size sump should I use under the tank?

3. What should the flow rate be back to the tank? still 10-20 times the amount of water?

4. Should I use reef bones or some kind of "filter" material in the sump? Is activated sand or gravel ok to use.

5. Should the chiller unit be attached on the up take to the tank or should it be before the sump?

Thats enough questions for now.

Trace

Do I have to drill the tank? can I run some kind of pump/cannister to draw the water down to the sump?

You can use what is called an overflow. A lot of people don't like them, but I find mine to work ok, the power has even gone out a few times with no problems. Just make sure it has a "no syphon break" thing. I guess I would have rather drilled my tank though.

What size sump should I use under the tank

I think you want at least half of your tank volume, but more is always better.

What should the flow rate be back to the tank? still 10-20 times the amount of water?

Whatever your overflow can handle, but you should probably aim for your overflow to handle something like 10X turnover.

Should I use reef bones or some kind of "filter" material in the sump? Is activated sand or gravel ok to use.

That's up to you. Depending on the application, bioballs and filterfloss can be made into a wet/dry filter. IMO there's no need for that sort of stuff in a reef tank with lots of LR, but in a FO tank, it might be necessary to handle waste. I have a refugium with a DSB, some macroalgae, and some base rock in mine.

Should the chiller unit be attached on the up take to the tank or should it be before the sump?

This one I'm going to leave to the experts...or at least someone who has run a chiller before

HTH

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Should the chiller unit be attached on the up take to the tank or should it be before the sump?

Personally I would run it on a closed loop going from the sump and going back into the sump.

Thanks guys
How would I make a closed loop?? excuse the ignorance I just want to be sure.

Trace

Closed loop is sort of just like...hmm, how do I say this, I can't really explain it. I guess it's just a single system really. A system without anything else being a part of it. I think what Nate is saying is just have the chiller on it's own; dont connect it to anything else.

That's how I have my oceans motions set up. It's on its own pump with nothing else.

Make a little sense?

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Yup, thats exactly what I meant...have your chiller pump running from the sump to the chiller and then have the chiller discharge water running back to the sump...it would be better IMO to have the chiller taking water from the input side of the sump and returning the chilled water to the side of the sump by the return pump.

makes total sence to do that, but being in Australia and summers being really hot should I chill the water a little cooler than normal so that when the water returnes to the tank it is 26-27c
Im just thinking that if i set the temp as normal by the time it gets to the tank it would have heated up some more and the water may be too warm and then the chiller would run constant not good for the chiller?

Trace

You will have to experiment with it and fine tune it to what the temp needs are. As for the chiller running constantly....if its running constantly then the chiller is too small and should be upgraded to a larger one to handle the temp drop that you would need.