Sump Sizing

[Greg Fox Jr]

I really had a struggle with figuring out what size the sump needed to be to handle the water load from my two grow beds.  As LUCK would have it, the system as built works perfectly. With the media in the growbeds the amount of water draining back to the sump tank is about 3 or 4 inches under the rim.  Perfectly sized. To that end, let me share my bed sizes and capacities...

 

Note: 0.00432900433 is the cubic inch to gallon conversion factor

 

Fish Tank

IBC tank with the top cut off.  

36 x 36 x 44 = 57024 cubic inches

57024 x 0.00432900433 = 247 gallons

 

Grow Bed #1

35.5 x 72 x 12= 30672 
cubic inches

30672 x 0.00432900433 = 132 gallons

 

Grow Bed #2

38 x 72 x 12= 32832  cubic inches

32832 x 0.00432900433 = 142 gallons

 

Sump Tank 

Oval Stock/Feed

140 Gallons

 

Total Growbed Gallons: 274

FT/GB Ratio: 1:1.11

GB/ST Ration: 2:1

 

In conclusion, it seems that the sump size should be half the size of your growbed capacity. Total growbed gallons / 2 = sump capacity.

[Ellen Roelofs]

What media do you have in your growbeds?