Wet/dry filters

[polgara]

Im in the proccess of building a wet/dry filter for a 5' tank I'v got most of it sorted but not sure what size tank to use for the sump. is there a way to work out what the minimum size should be or is it trail and error?

[Brianemone]

the bigger the better, dont forget you dont need a flash glass sump, anything that can hold water well will do.

[polgara]

Yeah seen some good designs on a website using plastic storage draws so thinking about following that.

By any chance do you have a small marine tank on your desk at work?

[Brianemone]

yep

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/7-vt6791.html?postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

[Brianemone]

who have you being talking to?

[Shilo]

Depends where you have your hole to break the syphon on your outlet pipes.

If there is a power cut etc the water will syphon out of the tank the opposite way it normally flows, thus flooding out the sump. By putting a small hole in the outlet pipe about 1or 2cm below normal water level this syphon will break and the sump will only fill up to a certain level when the pump is off.

You can measure the minimum litreage the sump will need to take by measuring the amount off water in the main tank above the level of this hole. (measure the same was as working out the litreage of your tank in total). I would recommend doubling the size of the sump to cope with partial blockages etc.

Other then that, so long as any equipment that needs to be under water is covered you should be right.

Of course the bigger the sump the better since it will stablise water parameters more (the more water in the system the less sudden fluctuations it will experiance).

Hope this helps