First I started out with a 40 gallon acrylic tank(36x15 footprint) that I found locally for $20,by the way I scored some acrylic adhesive with the tank so I didn’t have to buy any for this project. The tank had already been used as a sump but was designed for an inline pump and I wanted to use a submersible. The first thing I had to do was take out the bulkheads in the side of the tank and patch the holes. Once that was done I employed the help of a fellow member here at TFC, glaive to help me design a sump system. Once I had a drawing in front of me I could get to work collecting my materials. First off I went down to the local hardware store and bought myself a sheet of ¼” plexiglass big enough for me to get my 2 baffles one would be 9” tall and the other would be 8” tall to create a sort of waterfall effect that helps with aeration in the sump. I then secured the plexiglass I cut for the baffles with the adhesive and let it cure overnight. I divided the tank into 3 12” compartments. Next I went to work on building the wet/dry part of the system. I bought some egg crate( fluorescent light diffuser) and I made a shelf for the bio media to sit on then I made another for the drip plate to sit on. All this is positioned in the first compartment just below the drain coming from the built in overflow of the tank. For bio media I chose lava rock that I purchased at home depot. The lava rock sits on the first shelf about 4” from the bottom of the sump, and then the second shelf sits right on top of the lava rock itself. Then I bought one of those plastic dishpans(the ones you put in your sink and pile dishes into) and drilled holes in the bottom of it 1” apart I believe they were 1/8” holes if I remember correctly, this would become my drip plate. I ended up cutting about 2 or 3” off the top of the drip plate to get it to fit in the sump and still be able to hold it’s shape and provide support for a piece of filter pad that I cut to size. Next came the plumbing, which wasn’t too bad because the tank was already drilled in the back and had a bulkhead ready to go. I used 1” PVC for all my plumbing. I routed the drain out and down to a 1” removable union(in case I need to remove the sump this can be disconnected by unscrewing it)and then down into the sump right over my filter pad and drip plate. For the return I chose a Rio 3100 as my return pump(some people say these pumps are sub-par but I have been happy with mine).then from the pump I ran 1” vinyl hose up to a 1” ball valve through a 1” check valve(ball and check valve assembly is hard lined together). From the check valve it’s vinyl hosing again up to a hard line assembly I made to come up over and into the tank and into my homemade spray bar. pictures to follow shortly.

the tank

the baffle material and then baffles in place




the dish pan/drip plate:D



filter pad inside the drip plate

drain line coming out of the tank and down

the drain union

return pump and compartment

ball valve and check valve assembly

coming up and over the top of the tank

my homemade spray bar( just a piece of pvc capped on one end and holes drilled in it.

screen to keep plant matter out of the return pump

here's the planted section of it.

here's the whole thing in action

Sweet setup! jay

Since my tank is not drilled could I get away with creating a siphon from the lift tube on my UGF to get the water into the sump?

How big of a tank should I get to make a sump for a 55gal?

thank you dtroup.here's a link for you to check out about a diy overflow set up.


now if it were me i would use a 20 gallon tank as a sump for your 55.



here's another good one

I really dig the creativity you employed cich. That dish strainer was a great bit of oakey genious, not to mention the netting to keep the plants in check. How clear is the tank and is the lava rock mucking up at all? Ps how's the nitrates doing with the refugium?

the tank is alot clearer since i installed the screen(pops gets credit for that) nitrates are high right now i need to do another water change, around 30ppm.but remember i have 20 ppm coming out of the tap.

the lava rock seems to be doing fine, i did rinse it out in tank water though it was collecting some detritus.

I think amquel plus gets rid of nitrates.

i found that if i clean my filter pad over the drip plate every other day it helps keep the nitrates down but i also went back to using amquel plus.

did you ever plant the refugium chamber?

yeah i planted it a couple days after i set up the sump. right now i have mostly wisteria in there.

Sounds good, is it growing any?

it was doing well for awhile but now looks to be slowing down a bit.

the plants are not doing so well now. i think it's because the chamber they are in gets too much surface agitation, there by depleting the co2. any ideas of how i could potentially get around this. i was thinking of maybe drilling holes in the middle of the first bulkhead so that the water actually would return in the middle of the column instead of over the top.


i also redid some of the plumbing to reduce the number of 90 degree elbows in the system to allow for more water pressure.

Hmmm not sure off the top of my head besides a CO2 bubbler. When I get the chance I'll do a search for ideas.

yeah that may be the route to go alex. i may still have problems with that though as there is an aweful lot of surface agitation in that chamber.

Wow....I hadn't seen this one before. Very nice job.

...oh and CO2 injection was the only thing I could think of off hand too...

thanks bud, yeah i think that's probably the route i may go.

hey looks like you got your super mod status back,nice.:tup:

....yeah...just noticed that.....and you act so incocent!....

no sir wasn't me, wish i could take credit for it. must have been alex.:D

Vip must have gotten it I was in a 767 while it happened ;)