Plumbing question

[cchomistek]

Ok I am thinking of doing a build where I have a tank and sump in two different rooms. My problem is with the drain line going to the sump. My thoughts are to have a small tank sealed with two bulkheads in it like a reservoir tank and then have an external pump that will pump up about 9 ft and then go across about 15ft and drop down into the room where the sump will be located.

My issue is if this pump under the tank ever decides to fail and the return pump in the sump room keeps going what will be the outcome. Since the water will be traveling above the water line in the tank I will assume that it will only rise as high as the water level and then fill up the overflow box and flood that. Now this being the case if I had an emergency overflow going to a small reservoir tank that will hold the amount of water that my return section of my sump holds would this not eliminate cover me in case this happens??

Any suggestions are welcome. The reason I am looking at going this way as there is not room underneath the tank to put a decent size sump.

Thanks
Craig

[fishytime]

ok.......why is the drain a problem?......Im not understanding the issue:biggrin:

[Parker]

I think...... He wants to drain down to a sealed unit and the pump up and over?...

[cchomistek]

Ok the issue being if the pump that is pumping under the tank fails what will happen because the return pump will still be pumping water and thus there will be water coming over from the sump but no water returning to the sump because that pump is not running! Will this not result in a flood unless there is some other measure taken?

[cchomistek]

Yes Parker that is exactly what I am thinking!

[Lampshade]

If you go with a small return section in your sump your pump will get starved of water before your tank overflows... it's my "herbie" system failsafe. My pump cannot overtop my tank since there isn't enough water to do that. As long as you have an ATO shouldn't be a problem keeping levels. same as how we build our sumps to be able to hold enough water with return pumps shutting off, you can do the tank the same. 1" in a large tank is a LOT of water.

[cwatkins]

I'd suggest a controller and a bunch of float switches!

This sounds a little dangerous!

[Lampshade]

Float switches sound good, I didn't think of he amount of water that's going to be in the pipes, 30 feet of piping is a lot of water to drain when a pump shuts down.

[fishytime]

ok.....why do you have to go up and over?.....you cant drain directly through to the sump?......cant punch holes in the wall?......whats the scenario here?.......why do you have to go up and over a wall?.......how much room is under the cabinet?.....enough to do a skimmer and external pump, pumping to a remote reservoir (for volume) then back to the tank? that would be a safer scenario methinks.....

[reefermadness]

Guys....if I'm understanding correct...there is no overflow and drain. He plans on pumping water from the display to the sump and also pumping water from the sump to the display. Which will never every work.

[cchomistek]

Ok guys well the scenario is this the customer wants do a 6 ft x 16" wide tank and 36" high, which gives a problem under the tank as he us just building a quick 2x4 stand and thus it doesn't lend to very much room for a sump. The place we are thinking for the sump is in a room across a large hallway about 20 ft away! And we have to go up and over to get there so about 10 ft up then over 20ft! There will be an external overflow on this tank and I wanted it to go down to a sealed small tank and then a large enough external pump to push it up and over to the other room!

[Madreefer]

With those measurements thats a 180G tank. 36" is pretty deep and hard to reach the bottom if you need to. If the customer goes 24" deep it drops it down to 120G. Than that will make rom for a sump underneath. The plan seems a little complicated and too much work.

[cchomistek]

May very well be true! We will have to see! If so then it will be to plan B! Thought I would give it a try anyways!

[Aquarium_Medics]

What about using canister filters in parallel to get the enough filtration and an inline protein skimmer? Would that not work??

[Madreefer]

I think most of us on here started out with cannister filters. Most of us now have sumps. Might as well do it right from the start. Sumps are much easier to do things with and add new equipment with as you get more advanced in the hobby.

[Aquarium_Medics]

I agree for a sump is better for someone in the hobby, however, if this is just for display in an office, then a closed system may be a better option.

[mark]

6'x16" tank, still lots of room below for a sump. Build a metal stand with custom sump.