Basement Sumps

[whatcaneyedo]

I gave a friend a hand setting this one up. On the plus side it eliminated the clutter and ceased the water damage inside her expensive stand. The change also allowed her to use a larger sump and now enables her to do water changes in the laundry room rather than the living room. On the downside, access is still pretty tight as there really wasn't much room beside the furnace. She also had to buy a much larger pump to use as a return.

She didn't trust the glass shop to drill a hole for a bulkhead to feed the pump so I had to plumb the unusual intake.

[Dez]

I have my sump in the basement. I wouldn't do it any other way. You can check the link in my signature for details either on the TOTM link or my Tank journal (I have to warn you, it's long)

[mark]

like mine.

Lots of room, laundry sink is right close for water changes or cleaning skimmer. Containers with new SW under sump so easy transfers. Can't hear the return pump from display.

[68shelby]

Originally Posted by reefgirl189

Who's got their maintenance room on a different floor than the main display tank? Let's see pics! Would you have it any other way? What are the bonuses and drawbacks for this type of set up?

I have mine in the basement, Pros I never worry about heat in the summer, water changes are easy, plumbed into toilet stack, spills on cement floors are a lot easier to deal with than on hardwood on the main floor. Drawbacks, noise if its not plumbed correctly.

[reefme]

Originally Posted by 68shelby

I have mine in the basement, Pros I never worry about heat in the summer, water changes are easy, plumbed into toilet stack, spills on cement floors are a lot easier to deal with than on hardwood on the main floor. Drawbacks, noise if its not plumbed correctly.

Noise from DT or from sump?

[Reef Pilot]

I have my sump room in the basement under the stairs, so pretty tight quarters. I actually run two display tanks (100g upstairs, and 135g on the other side of the wall) now from the same sump (still ample capacity for power outages). I also have a refugium/QT (out of view on the left) in there, that I can convert to another sump if I want. It can be connected to my main sump with an external overflow. I have all the necessary drain and water supply (incl RODI feed line) plumbing down there too, as well as all my dosing stuff.

In the sump, I have a Vertex In-280 skimmer, Vertex UF-20 bio pellet reactor, DIY ATO, and a single Sedra KSP-20000 (2000gph) return pump that runs both tanks, with T offs for my bio pellet reactor, chiller (1/3 hp Artica), and external GFO/Carbon reactors. I do not use any heaters, and tank temps are constant at 79 F.

I like it, because all the noise is out of the way, and less chance of any disasters upstairs to ruin hardwood and carpets.

[reefme]

Hi Reef Pilot,

How good is this Sedra KSP-20000 pump?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefme

Hi Reef Pilot,

How good is this Sedra KSP-20000 pump?

It's great! I used to have a Mag 18 (1800 gph) to push the return flow to the upstairs tank, and that's all it could do (not a lot of flow either), so had to have other pumps for the rest of the equipment. When I added my downstairs tank, I got this Sedra, thinking of using it for the upstairs tank to get more flow, and use the Mag 18 for the other stuff.

But it had so much flow and head pressure, thought I would try put some T's off for the other stuff. Much to my surprise it runs all the other stuff with flow to spare (throttled with ball valves) without any loss of flow to the upstairs tank. Hard to believe it is only rated at 2000 gph. Absolutely no comparison to the Mag 18.

[reefme]

What size hose do you run it upstairs? 3/4 or 1"?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefme

What size hose do you run it upstairs? 3/4 or 1"?

I run 3/4 to the upstairs tank, even though the Sedra pump output is 1". But that's what I had with the Mag 18, and didn't want to change it. The upstairs return line also goes through a UV light (turned off for now), so that doesn't help.