Adding sump to my existing tank!

youngreef

Active member
Hello everyone,
I need your help, I finished building my 20g long sump for my 40g breeder reef tank, have all parts, thanks Jay for the CPR CR50 overflow box, Will upgrade to the CR90 if I've found one
Ok, now is the part that to fill the sump, can someone guides me through step by step? I should prepare about 15-20g saltwater same temp to fill the DT or to fill the sump?
please advise
Thanks
Matt
-----------------------------
Finally, finished my 20g long sump setup, thanks Jay and Tom and other friends here that I don't know your names, my first time built,
everything works great, I need to replace new water pump and will build a stand to raise my skimmer, everything up and running,
here are pics of the sump for my 40g Breeder DT..
oh I bought the Miracle mud from Drsfosterandsmith.com, wonder how it looks like, it likes fine sand not like the one I saw on Youtube(mud)
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and my 14g biocube
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Thanks again everyone!!!
 
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Put all the equipment in the sump. Make sure the water is same temp and fill your sump to the very top with all pumps and skimmers turned off. This will ensure that there's not an overflow in a power outage. Might want to fill the overflow also not sure though never ran one. Then just turn everything on

ANARCHY
 
+1 for everything Anarchy said. Other than overflowing when the power is out, or leaky plumbing, there aren't many possible problems.
 
One more question,
how to prevent the overflow when power outage if using the CPR overflow box?
please advise.
thanks
 
One more question,
how to prevent the overflow when power outage if using the CPR overflow box?
please advise.
thanks
That's what I was saying before about filling up the system with all the pumps and skimmer off. This is basically simulating a power outage. So with pumps off if you fill the sump and overflow box to the top then that's as high as it will go in a power outage. Once you have it full and turn the pump and skimmer on then the water level will drop to an operating level. I like to mark the operating level on the side of my sump with a sharpie so I know if the water is over that line then it could overflow. Also helps if you don't have an ato yet then you can just add water to that line... at least that's what I do to my wife's softie tank

ANARCHY
 
Having never used an overflow box, is there not a siphoning tube that would need to stop pulling water from the tank also. Wouldn't that be enough to overflow the sump
 
People do mods with the siphon where they install a Tom's aqua lifter inside and have the overflow always stay primed. I'm sure you can get away with a simple are hose but the redundancy is pretty much worth it
 
Thank you guys,
The sump is ready, got the big skimmer, cpr 50', quite one pump 3000,
Need some pvc for plumbing and valve,
The pump 3000 is a bit loud and strong, maybe drop down to 2200 or something more quite!
Got the aqualifter for prime,
Thanks all for your suggestions
 
Put all the equipment in the sump. Make sure the water is same temp and fill your sump to the very top with all pumps and skimmers turned off. This will ensure that there's not an overflow in a power outage. Might want to fill the overflow also not sure though never ran one. Then just turn everything on

ANARCHY

fill the water to the very top of the baffle or very top to of the tank? sorry for a dumb question lol
 
How did it go? Also beware that the return from the sump to the DT, will be a primed siphon tube back to the sump in the case of the pump turning off for whatever reason. You could make a hole in the return pipe say a half inch below the operating height of the dt so it won't siphon below that. You could use a check valve. But they always fail eventually in my experience.
 
it went very well, thank you, I posted some pic on the first page. yes I did drill the hole on the pipe and tested the by shutoff the power, works great. the water stopped at the hole, it stops the siphon,
thanks guys
 
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