Drip tray for sump?

[selch]

I was talking to my local aquarium builder about putting together a sump for my 12g nano, soon to be 30g. This would add 20g to my over all system volume. One thing that shop recommended was having my incoming water to the sump flow over a drip tray.

From there, it drips into the first chamber that will contain a ball of cheato and a powerhead to roll it, as was mentioned in another post here. Then down through some rubble and into the main chamber where its skimmed and returned.

I was wondering what your thoughts were concerning a setup like this. The reason they like the drip tray was to add aeration to the water. My only concern is that it might sound like its raining in my living room all the time. Thoughts?

[Anthony Calfo]

the drip tray is more of a burden than anything. I see no advantage to it, but possible disadvantages re: tidiness... need of service, etc.

More importantly... the skimmer placed last in line (or anything other than first to get/process all raw water) is a simply dreadful idea. Please do read the skimmer thread stickied atop this forum to better understand why.

The rubble is also a detritus trap. Not needed and yet another burden if you don't service it (or have a lot of (noisy) water flow running through the sump to prevent the accumulation of solids.

This sump is frankly overthought, my friend.

Keep it simple and wide open.

First chamber is the skimmer... second is a refugium if you like (no rock or rubble... DSB if you want... chaetomorpha perhaps for pods, etc)... then last chamber is the open sump proper where heater, carbon and return pump reside.

[selch]

The thought behind this setup was simplicity - just two chambers. The idea was to just have a sump, no fuge.

The cheato I already have in a hang on converted filter to mini fuge. I thought it'd be a waste to get rid of it since I have it, so the first compartment was designed just to hold it. I do agree that the rubble could go as its benefits would be minimal.

As far as skimmer placement goes, it didn't think that the cheato would be sucking a whole lot of nutrients out of the water and thus with just the two chambers and no fuge there would still be plenty of gunk to skim out. I can rethink that.

I appreciate your opinion on the drip tray, I think I'll pass on that and just plum it straight into the first chamber. I haven't seen any other examples of that nor have I found any via search so I was curious of the advantages or disadvantages. Plus, I'm guessing it would be noisy.

At this point it looks like I'll just end up with a box of water with a skimmer and return pump in it. I guess you can't get much simpler than that. And, well, that's a sump.

I appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

[Anthony Calfo]

all good And please do take a look at the skimmer thread stickied atop this forum. It details the advantages of concentarted first stage water for skimmers... versus open sump, downstream, etc.