Sump as filtration for planted tanks?

[bennyc]

Urban, as usual, your thread is always so poisonous. Just take my money and go. Haha.
If there is a clear acrylic version, that will be great. Less breakage, more cost saving.

[bennyc]

@ urban, did some research on the mame overflow. The overflow is really beautiful and compact. I love the technology and effort put into designing the overflow.

However, There are complains too by users. The flow rate is slow as the diameter is not that wide. Users normally need to buy two and connect them in series. One is already price at about USD 200 plus.

It seems to me that the outlet pipe is narrow and looks kind of small. So to use it for CO2 ciculation might be difficult. From the videos i watch (marine tanks), There is always wavemaker present.

With only the skimmer as the inlet, i wonder if the filtration will work for freshwater. Correct me if i am wrong, But it seems marine tank due to the salt water things float and get pick up by the skimmer. For freshwater , things sink and with not be pick up.

Being glass, i am afraid of it. ( just broke my outlet lily pipe doing cleaning, sad). It looks easy to fabricate in acrylic, maybe can DIY one.

I love the fact the it is a self siphon overflow thou, that is really cool. That tells you a lot about the thought given in the design process.

[Urban Aquaria]

I think its definitely possible to DIY or custom make it in acrylic too (i've seen the DIY versions using just PVC pipes)... its mainly curved individual parts with wide diameter clear hose connecting them together. The key is to get the measurements right to optimize the siphon and flow rate.

The simple jet-style output does indeed narrow the current so there'll tend to be alot of dead spots. Maybe for the output, can custom make a lily pipe mouth attachment to spread out the flow too.

For overflow systems, i guess its less of an issue if the tank is heavily planted as any dense debris or organic matter will just settle on the substrate and eventually breakdown into nutrients for the plants (instead of breaking down in the canister filter), or you could just do regular substrate cleaning with a gravel vacuum.

[felix_fx2]

Urban, got try looking at doing a full clear mimic of Reef Octopus ? (maybe can buy from china ready done ones.)

Anyway, Tom of barr report use overflow quite often. Just go see his 120-gallon-Dutch-Planted-something-or-another thread.

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, i saw the acrylic box ones similar to Reef Octopus designs online too... those would be the simpler and more conventional alternative.

[vinz]

Now that I have a large tank with sump, I can weigh in on this.

So far my plants seem to be doing ok with the sump.

Initially, I stuck an atomiser right next to the return pump intake. As far as I could tell, all the CO2 bubbles got sucked in immediately. According to the ISTA CO2 Indicator, CO2 levels were ok. However, the result is that I have lots of micro CO2 bubbles being blown all over the main tank. Some people like this effect, but not me.

So I dug out my old NA Nature custom made CO2 reactor and connected it up to the sump return pump. No more micro bubbles, but CO2 levels are ok.

Bubble rate? No idea... really fast. We'll see how long my 5 litre cylinder of CO2 will last me.

To reduce water turbulence, I've stuffed the "dry-wet" chamber full of filter pads. The rest of the chambers overflow quite smoothly, so big issues with those. With the Hofer Gurgle Buster installed and the drain pipe's ball-valve tweaked nicely, the drain pipe is not expelling any more bubbles. So any CO2 lost in the drain pipe will be trapped in the drain pipe and dissolved back in eventually.