post modern sump

[rickwaines]

A little background. I have kept fresh most of my life but never salt. I am planning one now though.

So, a long time ago(early 90's), in a far away land (switzerland), I met a guy who was building his own housing for his desktop computer out of acrylic. I sure thought it was an very slick idea, and it looked fantastic.

I am thinking of applying this idea to a sump/cabinet. I would like the cabinet that my 24x24x16 (size approx as I am still planning), Tank will sit upon to be an acrylic cabinet/sump. A see through cabinet that houses the sump and all the gear. The cabinet would be approximately 24x24x30. I plan to access the cabinet with full size door on the front. The bottom third would be the main sump with skimmer, and return pump.

Here are my questions. I imagine this has been done before. What hasn't.
Anyone know of a build like this?
Would a cascade of compartments work for the pre filter and the refugium before arriving in the sump proper?
Is it possible to keep an acrylic sump "clean"? I am new to salt and as I look at the few pics I have of peoples sumps it seems that there is a range of "cleanliness". Is this simply due to out of sight out of mind for the "dirty" ones? Or, are the "clean" ones simply new.
Are there pieces of equipment besides the sump that people feel they would be lost without? Calcium reactors, Phosphate whatchyamacallits. I am planning for soft corals and fish.

Perhaps that is all for now. I look forward to your thoughts. And please bear with my beginner salt mind.

Rick

[Rastapus]

Rick,
Interesting idea, however, salt creep is a b****! I cant imagine the work that will go into keeping a transparent stand/sump clean. I applaud the idea but I think you may regret moving forward on that one long term.

[tang daddy]

There are some cool looking sumps out there for a cube style, I would say if the sump is not lit it would stay cleaner, less algae in the refuge area and cleaning the settled sediment like detritous often will keep it clean.

I have seen lots of sump designs aswell over the years, if I was to do a sump with your tank dimensions I would split the cube dimension into 4 compartments. The more time the water travels, the less micro bubbles because it has time to diffuse. Imagine you're looking at your sump top down, add 4 baffles evenly like a cross, this would be the best way to do it. It's hard to draw unless you have a program and kind complicated to explain but it's pretty easy to do and I think it would yield the best results.

[Rastapus]

Although it is true that micro bubbles need sufficient time to come to the surface, in smaller sumps if you have many baffles etc, it can help to encourage these bubbles to stay in the water. A filter sock works wonders for this as well.

[tang daddy]

It's true too many baffles in a small sump with a fast return pump can cause the microbubbles because it has no space for the bubbles to diffuse, that is why I suggested that a cube sump be split into four equal compartments, assuming the sump is 20x20", the space that the bubbles has to diffuse would be 40" considering it ran through 4 compartments. As mentioned before a smaller return pump helps because the water flowing through the sump would be slower aswell. With a small sump you have to keep in mind space and while micron bags can stop micro bubbles it will also take up space, then you need space for the skimmer which also puts out more micro bubbles. I would have the overflow from the tank and skimmer in the same compartment, then atleast there is 2 more baffles to go through and diffuse before entering the last compartmment before returning to the tank!