Sump Filter Question

[andywg]

Durso Standpipes are essentially a way of ensuring that the water intake is always submerged and as such the amount of air sucked in with the water can be controlled to prevent any gurgling.

Barney, the airline and gang valve idea I got off of teh above site (under improvements). This, being my first ever drilled tank, was set up some time around 2004 IIRC, so the idea has been out there for a while.

 

[waterdrop]

wow, I read the whole durso standpipe site. Fascinating! I gather this significantly reduces the noise made by these big systems, although I still assume overall that a sump, with its pump and the weirs in the tank and so much water being moved that it would be pretty hard overall for one of these systems to ever be quite as quiet as a couple of large external cannisters, but then again we're talking much larger volumes of media and possibly other things being accomplished, so it would be a bit of an apples to oranges comparison I guess, right?

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[monkey_wrench]

haha thank you all for your detailed responses

sump filters are awesome

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, sorry to be using your thread for all these questions, just always fun to learn this stuff from the likes of andy, barney et.al.

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[andywg]

wow, I read the whole durso standpipe site. Fascinating! I gather this significantly reduces the noise made by these big systems, although I still assume overall that a sump, with its pump and the weirs in the tank and so much water being moved that it would be pretty hard overall for one of these systems to ever be quite as quiet as a couple of large external cannisters,

You would be surprised! Whilst they are not on the level of the upper ends of the Eheim range, you can get a very quiet sump. I have two sump systems (neither particularly well tuned) running in the bedroom.

If you run the sump as a wet dry you will get loads more noise, but then you will also have far more oxygen available to any bacteria.

but then again we're talking much larger volumes of media and possibly other things being accomplished, so it would be a bit of an apples to oranges comparison I guess, right?

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Very much so, and a horses for courses comparison as well. With a sump I can hide my protein skimmer, my heaters, my Deep Sand Bed (on my larger SW set up) and I greatly increase the surface area available for gas exchange (not so good in planted aquaria). That is without mentioning the ability to customise the media and rinse out sponges without turning off the filtration.

It's also a great place to dose supplements and with a subtle mod (which I hope to do before too long on my rack) can easily be converted to a constant water change system.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah its an obvious mod (the airline) so I'm suprised I havent seen it before. Probably have seen it but just never paid any attention to it

Sumps are great for being able to hold a lot of filter media as well as a place to chuck all the equipment (such as heaters). My sump (actually its a refugium wihch is kind of the opposite as the "utility" tank is above the "display" tank rather then below) is pretty much silent (though it is fairly small without a massive amount of flow through it). It can take a little bit of messing about to get it running right and then it can take awhile for it to "bed in".

Personally for a normal community FW tank I wouldnt bother (despite the advantages) but for anything with a heavy bio load or for tanks with a lot of extra equipment in they are brilliant.

 

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"Personally for a normal community FW tank I wouldnt bother " ..o don't worry, I'm not even remotely thinking of having a sump etc. any time soon. Its all just the thinking about it and understanding it that's fun for me. I'm just jealous of you guys as I know it would be tons of fun to be in the hobby nowadays and do interesting "projects" like this. Years ago I had a whole basement full of tanks but in those days we worked on them and played with them in almost a complete vacuum of information. The leverage you get via the communication in forums like this and the web is capable of making for lots and lots more fun, it appears to me, well I guess I should say more success really, cause we were having fun back then too, just not as much success as you can have now!

So, back to the subject, I read several sections about the air release hole, but I seem to have missed about putting the little airline on it. What are you accomplishing with that little airline at the top Andy?

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[xxBarneyxx]

Basically the hole at the tope of a durso standpipe determines how much water goes through it. I "think" the bigger the hole the less water there is (it might be the other way around, cant remember off the top of my head). So having an airline or valve of some kind on the hole means you can easierly adjust the amount of air it is pulling through and the water flow rates.

Your right about the hobby though. Not that long ago the only resources you had where a few books, your LFS and any local people that you knew who kept fish as well. Now any information you want is instantly at your fingertips. I would say it has done more for the hobby then anything else has ever done as it gives people a place to share ideas and results and gets people thinking about doing things in a new way that they would probably never have thought of otherwise.

 

[waterdrop]

Thx Barney,

Oh, now I get it, Andy's airline comes off the hole and goes to a normal adjustable airline valve I'll bet and that allows him to "TUNE" the hole by simply adjusting the gang valve, to get rid of the "flushing effect" and other problems of the durso. If that's it I see why its clever.

Also, glad you mentioned about "the old days" and communication being hard as I was suddenly "gob-smacked" (isn't that what the UK folks say, lol) and remembered my local aquarium society is about to meet this week and I've been meaning to go! Just looked it up and I haven't missed it! Maybe a night to talk to people in person instead of the usual keyboard!

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