Anybody tryed doing this yet? Wondering if there are any good pics,do’s&donts and pump you used.I’m getting ready to start this project
Done it many times. Look into a bean animal safe and silent overflow and a ReeFlo Pump. Reading on both of those would be a great place to start.
Also keep in mind the volume of water that will be in the pipes that during a power outage will end up in the sump. Make sure to have a max fill level marked on the sump and do not exceed it.
Jason, FB has a 100 gal tub sitting in the back of the store out side. Ask her, maybe she’ll sell it to ya.
Jon how do you feel about check valves on the supply back to the tank? Only will allow water 1way.then only have to worry about the water in the pipe coming back to sump? Already looked at that tank,its full of holes
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Jon how do you feel about check valves on the supply back to the tank? Only will allow water 1way.then only have to worry about the water in the pipe coming back to sump? Already looked at that tank,its full of holes[/quote]
How do I feel? Little nauseous. Count on check valve and you’ll end up with wet floors. Or worse the power goes out when your not home and you get wet floors then the power comes back on and your sump runs dry your tank gets blasted with bubbles until your pump burns up and your out another $150 for a pump(or more if you rush ship to get one in to replace it because none of the stores in this area carry pumps for the serious hobbyist). Counting on check valves is not a good idea.
If your tight on space in the basement then just don’t do it. If you just don’t have the money for a bigger glass tank then seriously go to tractor supply. You’d be shocked at how cheap rubbermaid sumps are. Ok, just made the trip with a couple of button pushes:
http://tsc.tractorsupply.com/search?zone=16&env=&w=Rubbermaid
100g sump “Structural Foam Stock Tanks, 100 gal. Capacity” $75-$80
Drill that, pop on a couple of bulk heads or uniseals. Big bang boom, instant sump. Just add water. 
^^^ I agree with the mistrust on the check valves. I don’t know about you, but my pipes get a bit of gunk on them from just running, and that may hinder the ability of the check valve to perform properly. Unless you get a valve designed for industrial slurry use (with a hefty pricetag to boot), complete with a “fail close” actuator, I’d be leary to trust it.
Ok so I have all the part to build this setup.i will post pictures soon.my question is…should I let the water in the basement run and cycle before I hook it upto the dt? Basement sump is about 225g and dt is 180g. Should I start it into a cycle or is this not going to cause a cycle? Could look at it as a big water change?
no check needed you know that, you could drain your whole 180g dt and it still not overflow lol
Anybody?
From what I learned, when you do a large water change it takes the tank out of balance and bacteria need to be replace. But you’re not really doing water change, you’re recycling the water through the DT through the sump. So, with my guess, in time the bacteria will populate the whole DT and within your sump.
My guess again, it would be OK to go ahead and plumb it through without having to cycling the sump water. Hope it helps
It should be fine, but if you are worried you can always do several water changes over a week or 2 and use that water to “fill” your sump.
Da Da Dat Daaahh!! You can always add some bacteria too!
My favorite brand this year.
If you haven’t already do not completely fill your sump. Then it will be a smaller change.
Regardless if the sump is full or not you could hook it all up and then turn in on for two minutes and wait 12 hours. Then turn it on another two minutes. Or calculate how long of a time period would be adding 20% of the water volume.(vs 2 minutes off the top of my head) Keep the sump moving somehow with a power head or something so that it is not stagnant and void of significant oxygen.
When I upgrade aquariums to larger size I don’t like to have more then a 50% increase at a time. So if I were to upgrade an aquarium from a 100gallon to a 340g I would add 100gallons of new water and no more. This seems to work very well.
Just my two cents.