Help!! Sump!

[Lucent28]

I tried building my very first sump. It's bad. First of all, the pipe coming into the sump spits out water at an ungodly speed and produces tons of bubbles. 2nd, my internal pump makes a ton of noise. Mainly from vibration. 3rd. My baffles are all screwed up. Can some one please help me, I'm desperate! I need plans or something. I going to have to drain the sump to start allover again. The sump is a standard 30g AGA. My main tank is being set-up as a 90 AGA reef. What size pump should I have that will not make alot of noise. The overflow is drilled and rated at 600gph. thanks for the help.

 

[Sponge_Bob]

Here is a "crude" drawing of my 20 gal. glass sump with baffles that I made from plexiglass. Make sure that you take plexiglass (acrylic) that is thick enough to withstand the weight of the water. At least 3/16" or ¼", otherwise, you will have to cut small piece to act as cross-members to strengthen the whole baffle assembly. The drawing was made with Paint, so it's not to scale and not so good looking but it will give you an idea on how to go about it.

Use silicone to secure the pieces to the glass. If you need to glue some plexiglass (acrylic) together, use PVC glue that you will find in most hardware store, in the plumbing dept.

For the bubbles, if you notice the first set of baffles, the water actually has to go from under, then over, then under again to reach the second section. Since bubbles rise to the surface, you eliminate that problem.

As for the noise of your return pump, which would be located in the last section of the sump, place some used sponge pads (Fluval 304 or 404) work great and reduces the noise a GREAT deal. If your skimmer pump is generating noise as well, you might want to use the same thing there.

HTH