I've had a few opportunities to ramble on some other people's threads about some topics I've become pretty keen on.
CLIFT PIST & Venturi drains (these are working so well for my aquarium system)
Pond liner (cost effective if the ground can support it for the most part.)
in ground tanks (temperature effective in my climate/location)
Wet climate, sub tropical climate, sand, and lack of slope contribute to my design situation.
I am of course mentally designing future systems (which I of course hope to build but don't know if I'll ever get to.)
I really think in ground stuff makes lots of temperature sense here because our ground really doesn't get cold yet it is just moderate enough to help balance the really hot weather too.
The balance to this comment is that I really want a CLIFT PIST system since it would help a lot on the maintinance of the system (mainly cleaning out the pump trap ever few days.)
Problem I need to solve here, how do you have an in ground sump in a place that has major rain events. (I don't intend to pour and seal a 900 gallon concrete sump.)
Sand makes digging easy but slumps really easily too so level fluctuations in ground tanks leaves them vulnerable to collapse.
I've been rolling around an idea for a lined pond/largely gravel filled sump Idea. If I were doing an ornamental pond AP system I might simply surround the pond/tank area with a gravel filled bog area to help absorb the fluctuations in level without having to get too complicated. This would of course require a very large chunk of pond liner.
For a more specifically AP method of partially gravel filled sump I was thinking perhaps dig a hole a bit deeper than a blue barrel. If there is a deepest part of the depression where a blue barrel could be modified with holes to act as standpipe for the pump inlet or submerged pump. Surround the barrel with large gravel and make the rest of the sump pond big enough to handle the volume of water plus gravel plus a bit extra for safety and top up valve. The gravel/rocks hold the liner down even when it isn't full and there is rain. The entire volume would not need to be filled with gravel or rocks but the entire bottom and around the edgs (where the liner needs to be supported on the inside by gravel/rocks and on the outside where some other support needs to keep the liner above flood level for rain events.) Otherwise the space could be quite ornamental being something like a gravel rain garden with the fluctuating water levels. Perhaps a bit of a frog pond going on. If some areas are filled all the way above the high water mark with gravel, they could function as grow bed space even. This could probably even kinda tie into the AP patio ideas out there.
Biggest problems I see are;
*requires a very large volume to be contained since much of the space is taken up with gravel (space)
*requires a lot of extra rocks/gravel (cost)
Big benefits I see;
*provides a huge amount of extra bio-filter, solids filter, and perhaps plant capacity within one unit while serving as a sump.
*Could be turned into a fun ornamental space
*could be a place to grow certain bog/water plants
*perhaps the Flood and drain crowd's alternative to the AP patio could be the Sumpito, just make it large enough to handle the amount of water while also filled with gravel then place pavers on top while leaving the barrel off to the side with the pump under a lid. Then the shrubs and other ornamental plants can get their water from the flood/drain action without the issue of drippers clogging.
Ideas, changes, expansions?
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with sump tank about 12" out of the ground - no loss of fish though 