Kessil

Anyone run a sump outdoors?

tygunn

tygunn

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As the move-in date for my house draws near, I get to thinking of my 90g tank and where I will set it up. I've got a slab foundation, so I can't run piping under the house. However, if the tank backs up onto an exterior wall I was thinking I could put the sump and equipment outdoors. The side of the house by my living romo is kinda a dead space, so I figure I could built a simple well insulated chest where the sump and equipment would live. Actually, I could even just build the sump into the shed in the form of a plywood sump. Hmmmm. Thoughts?
 
I'll have to consider this. :) I really don't like hauling buckets around to do water changes, etc. and worrying about spills inside. If it was all outside I could make as much of a mess as I want and not worry about it. :)

Ooooh, and I just got a good idea; for those times when I want to siphon stuff up in the tank, I can tee into the emergency sump drain and have a hookup for a siphon line. Then I could just run a filter-sock in the sump to capture all the detritus.

I sometimes think 1/2 the fun of running a reef is planning a build.
 
My thought would be to insulate the cabinet well to protect against head/cold. The side of the house where I envision putting this is also fully shaded by trees so will never get direct sun. Only downside with this plan is I'm still going to need to haul water from water changes all the way to the garage on the other side of the yard to dump down the laundry sink.
 
dswong01 said:
My friend pipe his sump under the house into a sump in a shed outside his house. It can be done
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Chicken? IIRC it cost him a fortune to do that because he lost so much heat from the underground pipe, first to PG&E for electricity, then later he build a natural gas fired heater which was also a pricey investment.
 
tygunn said:
My thought would be to insulate the cabinet well to protect against head/cold. The side of the house where I envision putting this is also fully shaded by trees so will never get direct sun.
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You need to insulate, absolutely must otherwise you're paying to warm/cool the outside via the sump and it has a virtually unlimited heat capacity, it's not like building a fish room where the sump warms the air and then heat loss becomes minimized. If you are going to put things outside think things through carefully, otherwise you will spend a fortune on electricity.
 
sfsuphysics said:
You need to insulate, absolutely must otherwise you're paying to warm/cool the outside via the sump and it has a virtually unlimited heat capacity, it's not like building a fish room where the sump warms the air and then heat loss becomes minimized. If you are going to put things outside think things through carefully, otherwise you will spend a fortune on electricity.
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Being from Canada I've got experience with cold climates :)

My thought was to do a simple 2x4 frame construction and fill the joist space with either rock wool insulation or foam insulation. Of course I would need a vapor barrier on the inside and then probably a thin plywood wall painted with epoxy paint.

Houses in Canada use 2x6s for the outer wall just for insulation purposes. :). Probably overkill for this.



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