A sump is a really useful way of setting up an aquarium to be neater tidier and more efficient.

What is it?

It’s basically a box or tank underneath your main display tank. Inside it you can install your equipment and hook up your filtration to this box to keep the main tank free of any equipment except the odd powerhead if they are required. 

The water flows out of either an overflow box that uses a siphon or overflows over of a weir down through hole in the bottom of the tank. This water can then be directed into a trickle filter, a sump full of live rock or whatever else. Inside the sump you can install your heaters to warm the water, you can add a chiller or throw in some bottles of frozen water when it gets warm.  You can direct the water through a protein skimmer, carbon filtration, UV sterilisation and mechanical filtration all underneath out of sight.

This de-clutters your display tank and allows you to set up a nice systematic method of filtering your water as it passes through the sump. I like to use my sump as a progressive way of treating the water so it passes through mechanical filtration then biological and chemical filtration and then some of the water is redirected back to be filtered again whilst some is sent back into the tank.

The other bonus of a sump is that it can dramatically increase your water volume and not take up any extra room as it just sits underneath where you are keeping your existing tank. By doing this you can have a small tank with a much larger volume of water and therefore it is easier to keep. It will dilute down the concentration of any nasties.

Furthermore it will dramatically increase your water quality by expanding the capacity of your filter if you choose to use a trickle filter, large quantity of live rock or a deep sand bed etc within the sump. 

If you do actually have the tank predrilled at the bottom with a weir in place this is great. It is possible to get retrofitted overflows and drilling if your tank is just a standard four walls and a bottom. The space saving advantages, increase in water capacity and potential for an increased filter size make a sump a method worthwhile exploring. 

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