What size sump is optimal for a 210?

[mitchelliii]

I have seen everything from a 40 to 300 gal sump on here. I am going to be drilling down from room with the 210 to the basement and wanted to get some imput on what to do for sump / ref. etc. I have a megaflow 40 gal for the sump at present.

/begin edit

Also - what pump(s) would you recommend for what will wind up being near a 16 foot head over the sump?

Thanks!

 

[skriz]

The bigger the better, especially if you are doing it in the basement. There is so much crap that you can do in a sump, the more space you allow for now, the happier you will be. Make sure you have enough room for a fuge; I don't and I really regret it. You can even have the sump have more volume than the display if you wanted...no real hard rules on sump sizes.

 

[showtime305]

I agree. Go with the largest sump you feel like you can manage. The additional water volume aids in providing a stable environment for your display tank. Of course you will need to spec out your equipment to handle the total system volume not just the volume of the display.

 

[justonemoretank]

Thumbs up for a large sump! As Showtime mentioned the larger volume of water helps keep parameters more stable.

 

[mojo]

I have a 240g on my main floor, plumbed down into the basement with around 16' of head. I've used a 100g rubbermaid trough and now use a 120g acrylic tank. I don't think I'd gain much (aside from larger water volume) from a bigger tank, but I'm very glad that the sump is acrylic, with the amount of holes and such that I've drilled into it. I'd highly recommend going that route, and looking for the 90-150g range. A used acrylic tank works just fine.

I initially used a Sequence 5800 pump, and yeilded about a gallon/sec (3600gph) through the pipes. Interestingly, this wasn't enough for the tank flow (through my Ocean Motions 4-way), caused lots of problems with microbubbles with that much flow in the sump, and added a lot of heat. I ended up dropping down to a Sequence 3200 and some Tunzes and have been much happier.

 

[ouling]

biggest one you can afford. I seen some thats 1 hp on that size tank.