DIY sump

I just want to know some ideas on how you do this.

This a 55gal. DIY sump:

You need a few things
overflow, plumbing, glue, return pump, bio balls, sponges, light defuser(egg crate),
glass w/ baffles, heater(best place to put it), silicone, gravel for bottom

if you are going saltwater you could ditch the bioballs in favor of live rock rubble, and use 3" plus deep bed of live sand. i had a 20l setup similar to the pic where i put my coralife superskimmer 125 in the area where the water entered the refugium from the tank and filled around it with live rock rubble, putting a 4" sand bed in the center section with some cheato and had my return on the end.

Great pics . Thanks for the idea

Nice Nitty but complicated. I have 2 five gallon buckets in a 40 gallon tote on my 200. Cut the bottom out of the buckets and cut a piece of egg crate to fit inside the bottom of them. Set up on bricks to get them off the bottom of the tote. Fill up with media, I use bio balls and scrubbies. Got to the fabric store and get some closed cell neoprene sponge and batting. Cut both to fit on top of the media, sponge first, them batting. I throw the batting away and change as needed. This way you can clean one side at a time to keep your bio going. Drop a sump pump in and you are ready to go.

Here's some cheap ideas for you:


All from Walmart except bioballs



This used to be my DIY Wet/DRY filter for my 320G VAT.

Great ideas.

I might just build me one tomorrow. Thanks for the idea JoJo.

+1 on that. Great DIY WetDry. I had to make one on my 150 cause the wetdry's that I bought wouldn't fit cause it was a custom stand so it was too short.

Custom one works just as well

One important point to remember, if you lose power your holding tank needs to hold as much water as will drain from the tank. Backflow preventers will help and of course the expensive UPS. Nothing like flooding the house and getting stinky smelly carpet, makes the wife real happy.

does it matter what kind of return pump you use?

tim wrote:

does it matter what kind of return pump you use?

tim it depends on teh gph of your overflow

How do you determine the gph you need for an overflow

in case of a reef ready tank it would be the bulkhead diameter (or so i am told). and as far as an external overflow box they are sold with the GPH listed

Tim I have a eshopps overflow box rated 1600gph and a mag 12 return pump rated at 1200gph. You just want you overflow box to be able to supply the return pump with enough water.

ok cool thanks

Here are 2 of mine