DIY - Projects & Ideas • sump size

[Mcdaphnia]

nice.i think the rit dye is the way to go.the krylon has started peeling off after a year or so on the pvc.any advice on the rit dye?im going that route with my usj next.

They make black pipe for ponds that is UV resistant and fish safe. Not too sure I want to subject my fish to dyes and paints more than the Far East already has. Thre are also knobby black adjustable jets on the saltwater side of the pet shop. These let you fine tune the direction of each jet any time you want. You can attach them to white pipe if your gravel bed is deep enough to cover and only the jets stick out. In fact you can completely cover the jets too. A fraction of an inch of gravel over them will not impede the water flow.

[G-Man]

If you decide to go with the dye, it is pretty straight forward. I followed the other articles on the forum. You bring the water to almost a boil and add your pieces. Some said it didn't take long for theirs to turn black, I left mine in there for 30 to 45 min. I think it turned out good. Then I just rinsed and rinsed till the black stopped coming off on the papertowels.

[G-Man]

Here is what I did for the sump so far, still have to make the overflow inlet to sump. It has MagDrive 12 and two Stealth 150w heaters. Ordered a hurricane overflow but has not arrived yet. Hopefully it will.

[IrkedCitizen]

You better hope those bulkheads don't leak or ever leak. I would test it before you put it in the stand.

I would have done it differently and put the tanks side by side short way instead of long way like you have them. Would have let more space under the stand. I also would have used pieces of tubing/hose to connect the two tanks together and left the bulkheads out of the equation.

As a rule of thumb a wet/dry sump should run with 15-20% of the display tank volume in it. So for a 150g tank the sump should have roughly 22.5-30 gallons of water in it. Though under a 4' space that can be difficult to accomplish. Some might consider those figures as overkill and of course it can be but as stated the more water the better.