Freshwater aquarium sump filters
An Aquarium Sump Filter is nothing more than a tank where you can add all your filtration system, filtration media, water pumps, and heater allowing you a clutter-free display tank. The benefit of having a big sump filter is that it will have greater dirt and beneficial bacteria holding capacity which will help in the Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle process. Aquarium sump filter is a great choice for freshwater aquarium especially if you are planning to get a big tank.
An aquarium sump filter is made from the same materials that are required when building an aquarium i.e. Glass or acrylic. Sump filters are kept beneath the aquarium. Traditionally, aquarium sump filters were used in marine tanks where good water quality is essential. These days as freshwater tanks are getting better and larger. Aquarium sump filter is getting its popularity in freshwater fish keeping hobby as well due to it’s excellent, effective and efficient filtration it offers.
An aquarium sump is not an aquarium filter on itself. The sump is just a container like an aquarium with lots of baffles that contains filters or which may house other aquarium filter media or equipment.
How Does Aquarium Sump Filter Work? – How To Build One
When it comes to aquarium sump filter it all about baffle. Baffles are a device or panels in an aquarium sump filter that is used to obstructing or directing the flow of water through different filtering chambers for maximum efficiency in the filtration. There are basically walls inside the sump that directs water. The size of the sump should be large enough to accommodate media equipment and additional water that drains when the power goes out.
For an aquarium sump filter to fit in your aquarium, you need to have an overflow system in your tank. In simple terms, the tank needs to be drilled through which water could escape.
The overflow water is collected in the first chamber of the sump. The first section is a good place to add good pre-filter i.e., filter media to filter aquarium waste, like filter floss, sponge or filter socks, UV sterilizers, and heaters.
The second chamber will hold biological media, typically in a submerged sump, the biological media of choice are, ceramic media, citric glass, and lava rock, something with lots of surface area. But I like to divide the second chamber into two halves. The first section would house ceramic media, lava rock, citric glass, activated carbon. And the other section would house moving bed filter. I prefer K1 Media for this section.
The last chamber would hold your return pump.
I like to ensure all the baffles are at least one inch below the surface of the sump to allow them to overflow if one chamber gets clogged.
Since an aquarium sump filter is customizable there are few designs you can choose, and some of them being a little more complicated than others, or build them as per your need, which will also involve drilling hole in the tank. Nowadays you can purchase a fish tank that is already designed to have an aquarium sump filter installed.
What Media to Put in a Freshwater Sump
I like to call sump as the godfather of any aquarium filtration system as it is customizable. In a sump filter, you can add as much media as you can (there isn’t a limit when it comes to adding media to sump).
Here are media you can add to your sump, however, the media order needs to be in order.
Here is how you should organize filter media in your sump filter or any other aquarium filter.
First, Mechanical Filter Media:
Filter socks, Filter floss, pre-filter is some of the examples of Mechanical filter media.
Second: Biological Media:
Bio-balls, k1 media, ceramic rings, lava rocks, etc are some of the examples.
And Third: Chemical Media:
The most common filter media is activated carbon.
So, what goes in an aquarium sump depends on you. The only thing you need to care for is the order of the media.
Do You Need a Sump System?
An aquarium sump filter is a great addition to your aquarium. Having a sump filter in your system will save you a great deal of time in the long run. By far, the most important reason for having an aquarium sump filter is that it separates all the equipment from your display aquarium. It allows your tank to look cleaner, open, and free from wires that don’t match your aquarium decoration. This means you can make a completely natural-looking aqua-scape in your display tank. Using an aquarium sump filter allows you to do a water change more effectively.
Without an aquarium sump system, the tanks are limited to compact aquarium filters like, power filters, or expensive canister filters which are still more compact in size if you pay less, HOB filters, and so on. These filters won’t carry filter media as a sump filter holds. And you will be sacrificing the display of your tank by adding aquarium heaters, filters inside the display tank.
Well, if you add an aquarium sump filter, you can go crazy on adding filter media, aquarium equipment, with huge multimedia, filters, and whatever you want to add. Including temperature sensors, UV sterilizers, biological filter media, chemical filter media, mechanical filter media, and all the equipment you want to hide.
What happens to a sump when the power goes out?
When the power goes out, the sump pump stops pumping water into the display tank. The water level in the display tank will drop to the overflow level, this is why you shouldn’t drill the overflow hole too low. An overflow hole below two inches of the surface of the display tank is the perfect spot to drill.
As the tank continues to drain, the aquarium sump starts to fill up. You should always maintain a certain water level in the sump filter system since it needs to be filled with water from the main tank until it stops overflowing the water. If the level is too high, water draining from the main tank will lead your sump to overflow and fail to hold excess water. This will eventually leak on your floor which may damage your house and keeping an aquarium sump filter will be your greatest nightmare.
