ideas on setting up a basement sump????

So to get this straight, you are trying to use the hammer head as a return and for water circulation in the display?

What 15' minimum are you referring too?

Why do you think you need that big of pump? Sure it's good to have lots of water circulation in the display, but to be honest you don;t really need much at all going through your sump. The slower it goes through your sump, the more time your water has a chance to go through the skimmer. If it were me, i would get a smaller pump and then get a separate pump for water circulation and do some sort of closed loop system.

IMO random flow is cool, not really needed. If you really want to do it get ready to spend some cash.

 

Hey snowman...I'm in the process of the same thing. One of the things that Jason Glaspie pointed out to me is the volume of water that can be in the pipes between the tank and the sump that you need to account for just in case of a power outage. This is especially the case if you are going anywhere except directly under the upstairs tank. For that reason, I'm going with a 75 gallon sump for my 90 gallon tank. Before I put the baffles in the sump, I'm going to play around with the water depths and stuff to figure out how much I need to account for while still maximizing the water volime. I'm still trying to figure out which pump to use....they're just so freakin' expensive... Look at the head calculator on reef central just to make sure that it's going to be as big as you need. I would love to hear more about the configuration that you finalize on.

--AJ

 

I believe he's referring to the minimum static head that pump is rated for.  Shut off head is 23'.
--AJ

 

Another tip is to drill the floor out to the size of a floor vent unless there's something else easier to do. This way if you ever move you can easily throw a floor vent on it and make it look like it's supposed to be there...

 

Great tip.  The other alternative is to drill what you need, but make sure that they fall within the dimensions of your floor vent size (compare this to your other vents...they can be different from house to house), then when you move, cut the hole to the size of the vent and drop one in. 
--AJ

 

Posted By adampottebaum on 05/20/2009 07:15 PM
Another tip is to drill the floor out to the size of a floor vent unless there's something else easier to do. This way if you ever move you can easily throw a floor vent on it and make it look like it's supposed to be there... ^ Genius simply genius!

 

If you want to do it once and do it right, get some good ball valves from Savko or US Plastic. The GF ball valves won't seize up on you and is easy to make minor adjustments. Put a valve on the input and output so that you can easily take it offline for cleaning. Your pump is a bit much but since you are getting a good deal, I guess you can make it work.

 

I am using a 30 gallon as a sump that is drilled near the top, that goes to a 100 gallon rubbermade which i use a refugium.

It's a little more expensive, but i really suggest using flexible PVC, it makes the plumbing a breeze.

Also listen to Sone, I have regular ball vlavles and they are a total ***** to fine tune, especially after a little coraline gets growing on them.

 

I agree with Jeremy's idea on using flex hose. It's more forgiving and easier to work with. Something else to consider is adding another valve tee'd off the output. I did this for water changes and it worked really well.

 

You'll be happy you put in all the unions and ball valves after your tank is set up. It will make your life easier and allow you to change your setup without a lot of hassle.

Your 55 should be fine for a sump, I had a 35 gallon sump for my 210. Just put a siphon break on your returns to keep a bunch of water from draining back into your sump.

 

Or just get a one way check valve. It's super easy and almost 100% effective. That way you don't have to worry about any water flowing back to the sump from the pump's pipes. There will still be a little water come from the overflow in a power outage, but that's always going to happen.

 

Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't put a check valve on my system, they are know for sticking.

 

you can always T the output off and have part of the flow recirculate in the sump.

 

Yeah, it sounds like that pump is just too big. It would probably be the aquarium equivalent of something like this...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUJRjNpV2Hc

--AJ