Sump Dynamics

[Sea-agg09]

I found this YouYube video where the builder incorporated a "cooling section", with water completely separate from the aquarium water.

Weird sump video

I guess the idea works, but do you think this is actually practical? I know at best it would slow the rate of warming, but do you think you could even notice a difference when you consider the small volume separated compared to the huge volume in the tank?

[jarrodaden]

It is difficult to tell what is going on from the video. There are numerous chambers, baffles, etc. I don't have the patience to listen to that music for as many times as I would have to in order to figure his sump design out.

Regarding cooling, the principle is simple enough. You have a looped system the runs from a heat exchanger inside the tank (or sump) the to a fan or cooling system and then back to the tank of sump. It is hard to tell from the video, but I think he is trying to conduct the "cooling exchange" across the glass partition. Glass is an insulator and not good for this application. An exchanger would typically be made from a material that readily transfers temperature such as metal.

[Sea-agg09]

Found a link in his description that took me to a page that better explained things.

http://www.pny.se/aquarium/diy_sump.php

It looks very complicated and frankly a bit ridiculous... from other comments on the video, I don't think I'm the only one.

[jarrodaden]

ugh. Where is the Tylenol?

If you are looking to integrate cooling into your sump, this isn't the answer. You could easily run your cooling system into and out of a "normal" sump.

I am a big believer in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. I am stupid and that design is far from simple.

[Sea-agg09]

Definitely not going to put this into my sump. I just felt stupid when I had absolutely no idea what he was doing... I wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one.