Sump and closed loop upgrade build thread

[d3rryc]

After months and months and months of planning, I finally carved out the time to upgrade my closed loop and sump. The pics here are of the old setup. The original closed loop had a snapper pump driving two SCWDs that controlled the four loop returns. However, I always had trouble with the SCWDs jamming up, and the barb design of the SCWDs was hard to work with. The new closed loop will replace the SCWDs with an OM Super Squirt.

The old sump was 30 gallons total volume, but its working volume was closer to 12 or so. The return chamber could only hold about 5 gallons, and the refugium was even smaller. The new sump is a 55-gal long aquarium that's been divided into three chambers.

[Third Coast Tropical]

nice union ball valves...smart move

[d3rryc]

First order of business was to divide up the new sump. I wanted a BIG fuge, and I also wanted to maximize the volume of the return chamber. The end result was a three-chamber design, with a "hanging" skimmer chamber. The hanging chamber keeps the skimmer in a constant 6" of water while freeing up additional volume underneath for the return chamber. The new fuge is fully half of the sump.

I used 1/4" glass and 100% silicone for the baffles. For the record, afixing a piece of glass horizontally in a narrow aquarium is quite the challenge - there's just no elbow room in there. I used painter's tape to hold the the glass pieces in place while the silicone cured. Nitrile gloves kept the mess to a minimum and allowed me to finger the beads of silicone to make sure I got all of the gaps filled properly.

Not pictured is a snail guard and bubble tower I added later. The snail guard is just a piece of egg crate siliconed along the top of the fuge baffle. The bare-boned bubble tower is a 4" piece of PVC with a couple of rows of 3/8" holes drilled along the bottom. The bubble tower got siliconed into the back corner of the skimmer chamber.

[Europhyllia]

That looks awesome! You must be so pleased. :)
Thanks again for PM-ing me the info to let me know it's possible. I actually installed my new sump today as well thanks to you!

[d3rryc]

Before doing anything, I gave all of the plumbing bits a vinegar bath to minimize any junk getting added to the system. I kept the snapper to drive the closed loop since it was plenty big enough to do the job. Fortunately for me, the original designer of this tank used double-union ball valves wherever possible, which made this upgrade much easier. The ability to rework the plumbing without draining the entire tank was a definite luxury. I simply had to replace the union collar on each of the four return lines and plumb in the OM Super Squirt. FWIW, spa flex is officially on my list of Cool Stuff... There's one place where I had to basically turn 180 degrees to go from the OM outlet to the return line's inlet. I can't imagine trying that with rigid PVC.

I had to shift the snapper way over to the left since the new sump would take up four of the five feet available under the tank and I didn't have any room behind the tank to borrow from. I know I'm losing some oomph with all of the 90-degree elbows, but ya work with the geometry ya got. My biggest regret is that whoever built the tank only drilled for a 1-1/2" drain line, instead of 2". The snapper has a 2" intake, so I'm losing 25% of the pump's capacity right off the bat. However, by adding unions basically everywhere I could, I can pull the pump and/or OM at any time with minimal hassle and water loss.

[d3rryc]

Getting the old sump out and the new sump in was the part that had me the most worried. As you can see in the pictures, I've got two stiles in the face of the cabinet between the doors to deal with. There's no room to go out the back or through the side. The front door was the only option. However, I caught a break when Euromom posted to RC, asking about replacing her sump. Someone replied that you only need to support the corners of a quality tank up to 6', and he had the photos from his days working at an LFS to back it up. I figured if I could minimize the time that I had the center stiles out, then I should be alright.

Whoever built my tank stand knew their stuff - the stiles were attached with pocket screws, but not glued in. That made removal fairly straightforward. I pulled one stile, removed the old sump, pulled the second stile, inserted the new sump, then replaced the stiles. Woodworking is another hobby of mine, and I've got some 3' clamps that can be reconfigured and used as spreaders. I used the spreader to give me the wiggle room I needed to get the stiles back in. I didn't even bother screwing them back in - there's enough tension to keep them from going anywhere.

I stole a concept from melev and used a ball valve to split the drain line from the tank into two lines. One feeds the skimmer chamber and gets the majority of the water; the other feeds the fuge. I also put an extension on the main return pump to draw from the back corner of the return chamber. Hopefully, that will reduce the amount of calcium buildup in the pump from dumping additives in that chamber, but that might be wishful thinking...

[d3rryc]

Some takeaways from my experience:


Plan, plan, plan, and then plan some more
Ask questions up front - some of the answers will surprise you
Having a checklist to follow made this process a lot less stressful
The blue rain-or-shine PVC glue is great stuff when dealing with wet PVC
You're gonna pooch a couple of glue-ups, so just deal with it
Schedule 10 pipe is hard to find, but a delight to work with
Unions are worth their weight in gold, so spend the extra money
Use threaded connections instead of gluing slip connections where possible - it will make later changes/replacements far easier
Shouts out to Jake at RCA and melev for their contributions to my design

Lastly, make sure your helpers get enough sleep the night before, or they'll end up like mine did... :shades:

[txg8gxp]

Looks great. Do you have any pics of the location of the closed loop supply and return lines in the tank? Just curious, is there a reason why you split the water from the tank overflow drain instead of the pump return line to feed your refugium?

[d3rryc]

No pics of the closed loop supply and returns, but I can describe them. Three are spread over the left third of the tank, opposite the main overflow box. The closed loop supply is just right of center and toward the back. The fourth return is about halfway between the supply and the main overflow box. If you take a close look at the third pic in post #5, you'll get a pretty good idea of where everything is.

The main reason for splitting off the tank drain instead of the return line was because I wanted to send "raw," unskimmed water to the fuge to feed the critters there.

[txg8gxp]

OK, make sense.


The main reason for splitting off the tank drain instead of the return line was because I wanted to send "raw," unskimmed water to the fuge to feed the critters there.