If you could do it all over...

[Proteus]

New sump. New sump new sump

I need to find a 22" long tank though

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Also shoehorning the sump under the stand as nice as it is for reducing space concerns, makes everything difficult about it.

i loved the access my old tank had and would do it again but without a dedicated fishroom. the space under the stand is great for storing salt and BRS chems etc.

[asylumdown]

I should also add that if i were to plumb a new tank, I would make sure that both overflows had their own totally separate plumbing. Right now my overflow plumbing runs meet in a t-union, then drop through a 3 way valve. If the valve is set to the right, water enters the skimmer chamber and flows through the whole sump. If the valve is set to the left, water drops out a pipe in the first part of the bubble trap, bypassing the skimmer, fuge, and water change chamber (3/4 of the sump), so that I can do semi-automated water changes in the water change chamber.

Because I know nothing about physics, I didn't realize that having the two pipe runs plumbed together in one outlet would make using a herbie basically impossible. Even though the gate valves for the herbies are right underneath the bulkheads, being plumbed together downstream makes them behave as one highly unstable system. I'd get the levels set just right in the overflow chambers, then if the return pump shut off, or if I sneezed too loudly in the next room, one of the overflow boxes would fill up to overflowing (often triggering the emergency overflow if that was the one that filled up), while the other would drain so much that it sounded like a water fall in my tank. This wreaked havoc on the auto-top off as the level in the return chamber would fluctuate over the course of the day, and sometimes led to so much fresh water being added that the salinity would fall a couple thousandths and the tank would be near overflowing.

Because of that I've had to ditch the herbies and go back to using a durso, which is noisy and produces so many micro-bubbles. If the filter socks start overflowing at all (with a durso, that happens every 24 hours), the U shape design of my sump takes the micro-bubbles right up to the display.

Moral of the story - to use herbies or a herbie style design in which flow from the tank in to the sump is restricted in some way, each drain needs to be plumbed from bulkhead to sump in isolation.

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Filter socks. Again, I listened to the advice of others against my own personal judgement and it's been a regrettable decision the whole time. I got talked into using 4" socks instead of 8" socks. What a mistake that was.

Besides the obvious difference in diameter what is the biggest draw back of the 4" socks? do they just simply get dirtier faster requiring constant changing? Or is there other draw backs aswell.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Trevor W

Besides the obvious difference in diameter what is the biggest draw back of the 4" socks? do they just simply get dirtier faster requiring constant changing? Or is there other draw backs aswell.

+1 Tony. Why are you regretting the 4" filter socks? I just made my sump to have 2 X 4" filter socks lol.

[Baldy]

The only thing I regret is using the stand I got with the tank. Its short which is nice because I can sit in my office chair in front of it and its at the perfect level and I cawork in it without a step (helps being 6'4" tall too :P), but the floor underneath the stand sits about 4 inches off the floor and I don't have much headroom in the sump. From the top of the sump to the bottom of the opening is only 7" and I have 17" of height for the skimmer. Very difficult to find a skimmer that short

[intarsiabox]

I've always had my sump stuffed in the stand under the tank. For my last tank I went with an external overflow and had the sump behind the tank with lots of room all around it. I couldn't be happier with that set up as I had unlimited access and wasn't restricted on the size of the sump so no comprimises had to be made for skimmers, pumps, etc.

[lastlight]

not an issue with the mesh socks but with the others it's really tough to flip them inside out to clean. easier with 8" tho still tough sometimes.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

heh, If what I am currently working on.

I'll get a chance to re-do all my tanks at the store.

[Baldy]

Originally Posted by BlueWorldAquatic

heh, If what I am currently working on.

I'll get a chance to re-do all my tanks at the store.

That's been in the works for a while now Ken! I'm still impatiently waiting