Pumping Water DOWN to a Sump?

[keyozoxmfc]

Hello all!

i havent posted in a while, but i have a question of everyone. as some may know i was planning on having a sump above my tank on a shelf attached to the wall and have my water pumped up there and drain down back to my display tank. however my mom would really prefer not to have the sump about my tank on a shelf so safety reasons even though technically it should work.

she would like me to have my sump/refugium below the tank, but the thing is that i can not fit any sort of overflow box on my tank since i have a tank with a built in filter, and i dont feel confident to drill, unless its really easy to drill a tank filled with water.

SOOOO my idea was that maybe i could have a piece of pipe with a screen on the end go over the side of the tank, and down to the sump. and to hold the siphon it guess there would have to be some sort of pump?

or another idea was to have an AquaC EV series and have the pump pump into the skimmer and then the outlet lead down to the sump? does that work?

Thanks for reading! anything help would be greatly appreciated!

[emora]

Pump down to then pump back up?
Its not a good idea. Even though you could tweak the two pumps to syncronise the flow between the two, the entire setup is just too prone to failure. Just think, a simple obstruction of on of the intakes would modify the flow rate in one direction and cause your tank to be emptied onto the floor.

[Russel P]

Yep. You'd need an overflow box on both as well to keep a big messy problem from happening -and even then the chances of burning out a dry pump are too high. Post some pictures of your set-up and I bet we can point you in the right direction.

Also, I've always wanted to ask you something: what in the world is high grade milk?

[keyozoxmfc]

hahah iono i heard it from my band teacher. it sure sounded like something you could by at the store... HIGH GRADE MILK. i laughed pretty hard

but anyways ill take pictures of my set up

[Russel P]

I think that's a stoner joke... since there is HIGH GRADE gas, but no such milk, it's something a stoner would say with righteous indignation. I'm pretty sure I get it now.

Back to the subject, there has to be some way you can use an overflow box!

[keyozoxmfc]

sooo here we go this first picture is my display tank. yes ive been very lazy on the scraping the front side.


then i have a picture of my sump.



here is the overflow in my top left corner of my tank



and then here is a default picture of the back of my tank



except i dont have the foam filter and the bio balls

[keyozoxmfc]

anyone have any ideas?

or shall i just stick with my shelf idea?

[Russel P]

Can the existing overflow not be routed into the sump? Seems that would be the easiest route.

[keyozoxmfc]

well i would think the only way would be to drill the tank? cause its possible to empty the back end out and drill it , but my mom would be so nervous about that. shed rather me do the shelf. i was thinking how the overflow box has two boxes and an attaching tube, maybe the entire back part of my tank could be the first box of the overflow?

[lReef lKeeper]

why can the overflow box not be ran directly into the sump ?? that WOULD be the easiest and safest way to run it.

[keyozoxmfc]

the thing is i cant fit an overflow box onto the back or any of the sides of my tank