To Sump or Not To Sump?
 

What are the pros and cons of a sump? I have still to make a decision on my first tank, but here is what I see so far:

Pros

• A place to hide equipment
• More stable environment due to larger volume of water

• Location to top up water, add salt etc
  
  

Cons:

• Extra noise of water cycling
• more locations for water leakage
  
  

Care to add to the lists?

Thanks

I would go with a sump because of a few of your pros and the sump can also act as a "jail" for the things that decide they don't want to play nice. But yes they make more noise.

Matt

There's all the cool plumbing you get to do/look at. Then there's the built-in water flow and O2 exchange. It can be a bit of a trial to tune the noise of the overflow. I like to hear the water burbling a bit, and I have had to un-silence my overflow a bit to cover the sound of the pumps.

You can make completely silent overflows and I'd show you. But I'm suppose to be working and not goofing around on the internet. Will post an awesome diagram later for ya.

Hi,
I am thinking myself whether to add sump, I only have a 25G tank, and can't (dont't know the difference) between sump and refugium(?)
Jim

No reason a sump can't be both :) mine is!

Mainly, though, the basic idea of a sump is to hold equip, increase o2, allow for topoff, skim, extra filtration from rock, bubble remover from skimmer, uv sterilization etc, etc.

And in my case, with many others, the otherwise empty area is a small refugium for me, with diff macro algaes, and is currently home for my troublemaker dottyback :)

Although it is risky (I have a HOB overflow and a maxijet 1200 for return) I would never go back. I can add my liquid reactor, phyto, purple up, etc all for maximum dispursal and the extra amount of water and filtration is *huge*

As for sound, I have a sponge in there that makes it go from loud and drainy, to quiet as a mouse.

So if you can, do it. For the health of your livestock! :)

I refugium is a place for things to find refuge like macro algae (if you have herbiverous fish) and pods. It can be part of your sump or a separate tank that is still plumbed into the main tank.

Sounds like a simple solution with the sponge, where do you install it?

you put it right over the drain hole, but I just tossed in a big fist size of chaeto and it did the same thing. Means I don't have to muddle with nitrate issues, and it does the same thing as the sponge :) Yay.

For a newbie...

What is chaeto, as opposed to cheesies?