My daughter and I are building a backyard pond with a waterfall. I keep saltwater fish and I use a sump for filtration. I am wondering if I can use a sump, similar to one used in my saltwater tank for filtration. I was considering installing a sump at/below ground level. I would pump the water from the pond into the sump and use another pump installed in the sump to pump the water up to a spillway waterfall. If the pump in the pond and the pump in the sump are plumbed using the same diameter pvc and each pump, pumps the same gph then the rate of return via the spillway should equal the rate of flow into the sump. Normally the sump is gravity fed by sitting below the tank, the amount of water that can enter the sump is controlled by the design of the tank and there is a maximum amount of water that can exit the tank preventing catastrophe. I have been unable to think of a way to reasonably gravity feed the sump. If one of my pumps fail bad things will happen! I have also considered placing the sump at the top of the waterfall and allow gravity to feed the water back into the pond. It would be much harder to hide this mammoth filtration device, but bad things wont happen if my pump were to fail. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you
The efficacy of Using a sump for filtration?
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Welcome to the GPF! You'll find lots of smart, friendly people here willing to share their knowledge and expertise.
Having said that, I really am not familiar with what you're talking about - I'm sure there are people here who are much smarter than me and will know exactly! - but I will ask why you think this is a good way to go? As opposed to some of the more common pond building techniques? How exactly is it different I guess is my question.
Having said that, I really am not familiar with what you're talking about - I'm sure there are people here who are much smarter than me and will know exactly! - but I will ask why you think this is a good way to go? As opposed to some of the more common pond building techniques? How exactly is it different I guess is my question.
What size pond are you going to build?
j.w
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A sump is a large external compartmental filtration device customarily used to clean an indoor aquarium. It is basically a large plexiglass filter with different compartments for biological and chemical filtration. You use a combination of carbon, sponge filters and ceramic or plastic media to grow beneficial bacteria. The different filtration works effectively to remove large and small particulate contamination and waste. We are planning for somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 gallons. I have a 50 gallon sump and I have used sumps in the past to effectively clean very large saltwater aquariums. I was thinking if you can use it to clean a saltwater tank effectively, it should be able to keep a pond clear and clean of debris and waste in a similar manner. It is easy to change out the filter media in a sump and it takes very little effort to keep it clean.
The sump won’t work that way, you need to do it with one pump, like you do in your saltwater tanks. Otherwise, one pump will pump more or less than the other one and either the pond or the sump will empty out, most likely the pump feeding the sump will overcome the pump pushing water to the pond, emptying your pond until the pump in there sucks air.
Also, ponds are a little different animal, you can use a skimmer which will house the pump and filter pads for ease of cleaning, or can put in bottom drains with a settling chamber, many have their pond like @Lisak1 does where the pond flows into an overflow area with aqua blox and gravel/ river rock over the blox that acts as a skimmer as the pump is housed in a centipede/snorkel, buried at the bottom of this water reservoir, similar in concept to your sump, but looks more natural and part of a pond or water system that is going to be seen, ( as sumps are meant to be hidden).
What type of pond are you looking to put in eco pond? If so ditch the sump and you will use plants to filter the pond, instead of a sump install a bog in the pond. Look in the stickied thread bog building at the top of this forum, addy1 has an in depth how to on building one, ( yours doesn’t need to be as big as hers to work).
Also, ponds are a little different animal, you can use a skimmer which will house the pump and filter pads for ease of cleaning, or can put in bottom drains with a settling chamber, many have their pond like @Lisak1 does where the pond flows into an overflow area with aqua blox and gravel/ river rock over the blox that acts as a skimmer as the pump is housed in a centipede/snorkel, buried at the bottom of this water reservoir, similar in concept to your sump, but looks more natural and part of a pond or water system that is going to be seen, ( as sumps are meant to be hidden).
What type of pond are you looking to put in eco pond? If so ditch the sump and you will use plants to filter the pond, instead of a sump install a bog in the pond. Look in the stickied thread bog building at the top of this forum, addy1 has an in depth how to on building one, ( yours doesn’t need to be as big as hers to work).
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Thank you!