HELP FOR FW TANK need basic sump and scrubber design

[mystic.bertie]

i want to build an algae scrubber to fit in the cabinet below my 6.5ft tank, i dont have a sump, i have looked at the diy overflow and i see its quite easy to make an overflow from plastic pipe and plastic joints, i want to use a small container or tank just for an algae scrubber

how do i control the water level in the sump , it will need to keep the pump submerged but keep the water low enough to allow me to hang the alge scrubber above the water level

can somone please help with the sump design to achieve what i want :geek:

thanks

[SantaMonica]

You need to first get help from the plumbing sections of other sites, so you can get your sump set up. Then you can ask here for scrubber advice.

Or, you can do a sumpless feed:

http://www.radio-media.com/fish/SumplessFeed.jpg

[mystic.bertie]

ok thanks santamonica :D

i can only fit aa scrubber below my tank so it will have to be a sump style set up, ill do a little research into setting up a sump.

cheers

[swiftly]

I have a 260 l (69 gallon) tank, which has drilled holes for a canister filter but not setup as an overflow. It also has fish, hair algae and some zooanths and bubble coral - bad purchase (believed getting tank cheap). At present using two 1000 l/hour canisters (for mechanical and biological filtration) with frequent water changes, and 2600 l pond pump for circulation. This is not going to work long term. I would like to create an ATS in the under cabinet as well. The one canister is attached through drilled holes at the bottom, but this is not in an overflow setup, thus I would need to convert it by placing a PVC tube over outlet of turned off canister. Dry and silicone seal base internally, with tank still operating around it (is this possible).
Once this is done replace tubing at base from canister with pipe to ATS, with an ossilating flow have two screens operating with one flow and the other not (is this surge still the best way of operating an ATS?), and the water collecting off the screens immediately pumped back into the tank via a float controlled sump pump. As a 1 inch pipe - assuming thus size allows 300 gph, and 35 gph over screen means that each screen can be 8 in wide and thus 9 inch long. Is this the correct calculation. As cabinet is 27inch high, by 30 inch wide, i could go 7 in by 10 inch screen allowing for lower flow from outflow, a sump pump controlled by float would move the water back into the tank (capacity greater than 300 gph or 1100 lph). I would need a volume of water to be safe from overflow by the amount of inches from top that flows into overflow, and the inflow to prevent a siphon from forming - oops the inflow is actually a fifth down the tank and goe through a drilled hole - so either convert to second outflow or would a one way valve work to prevent backflow. In this way bubbles are likely as I would want the extra space in the container for emergency water capture, rather than keeping screen always submerged at base? Any other issues that any one notices?
Sorry for the long distertion!!!

[SantaMonica]

The first problem you need to fix is the drain hole in the bottom of the tank. You can't have that. It looks like you thought of a solution... it sounds like you want to silicone an overflow pipe in the hole. This will work if:

1: The pipe comes almost the way up to the water line at the top.
2: The pipe gets wider at the top... about 3 inches wide. Otherwise you'll get a siphon sound.
3: The scrubber bucket holds enough water so that when the power is off, the bucket will not overflow when all the water drains out of the display.
4: You use a glue to glue the pipe which will work underwater. I'm not sure if silicone will work.

After you get the pipe in, we can look at the rest.