Tank Build! Up-sizing our tank to a 265 display!

I just switched over to a 100 gallon Rubbermaid sump. I went from around a 30 gallon sump up to 100 on my 99 gallon tank! Woo-hoo! Loving it. It nearly doubled my system size, which made everything easier to maintain and I can make a mess all over because its in the basement below my tank. My living room is cleaner now too.

So far as the Rubbermaid 100 gallon sump itself, its very ugly, but its in the basement. I made a stand for the skimmer to raise it up to the correct height, and the skimmer just stands off center doing its thing. The overflow from the skimmer cup is plumbed via a cheap hose to a 5 gallon bucket beside the sump which I can dump periodically, since I run the skimmer "wet." My Bean Animal overflow has all of the water going through the main downspout 99% of the time, so that is the one with a sock. The others just dump straight into the sump. The main overflow entering the sump goes into my home made tower made from 5 gallon buckets. Each bucket has holes at the bottom so that water can flow downward via gravity to the next bucket. Under all of them is a ceramic pot with holes in it, to raise them up so that gravity pushes water through them. The bottom two 5 gallon buckets are filled with crushed coral. The top bucket is where the PVC pipe dumps in with an angled downspout, so I can pull a sock over the downspout and let it hang there. So, the remaining area has about 3 cubic feet (when stacked nicely) of Marine Pure just sitting on the bottom of the sump, and sump circulation is provided by the water leaving the skimmer. I have a mesh bag of chaeto that sits right at the exit of the skimmer outlet, in its flow, and another piece of chaeto that is over in the middle... sort of sitting on the bottom which isn't probably ideal. The Kessil sump light is just mounted to the side of the tub. I had to cut a slot in the top edge of the tub for the kessil tank mount since the tub is too thick for the light mount. The return pump just sits on the bottom of the tub.

I never bothered with wanting any dividers since it seems to be working OK. If you're OK with using an ugly sump... I can heartily endorse the ugly 5 gallon bucket tower.

 

OK, you were warned,... its ugly!

 

If you search in Google images, "100 gallon Rubbermaid Sump" there are at least a couple dozen different examples, most of which are all better looking than mine.