New Idea for a Sump Design, Would this Work?

[Newtybar]

There's a lot of debate regarding sump design.

 

Some people recommend having a skimmer in the initial chamber, followed by a refugium, then the return. The argument against this is that the skimmer is pulling out the nutrients necessary to make the refugium inhabitants thrive (copepods etc).

 

The solution to this would be to put the refugium before the skimming chamber (my sump is designed like this). The main issue using this method is with the skimmer killing copepods before they can get returned to the display.

 

What if you had the two concurrent with different flow paths? One section would go through the skimmer and straight to the return and the other section would flow into the refugium and enter return without having to go through the skimmer portion.

 

To clarify, here's a diagram of what I was thinking:

 

At the end of the refugium section is a channel to slow the flow prior to entering the return. I believe this will allow the water height in the refugium section to be higher.

[ajmckay]

Interesting concept. I've done several sump designs so I find the topic interesting.

 

Some thoughts:

- I think the reason people put the skimmer first is simply because it's more efficient... As long as your skimmer isn't horrible or tuned wrong it will do the heavy lifting leaving the fuge to have at the rest. Because unless your fuge is enormous it's not going to be nearly as effective as a skimmer could be. Also the skimmer will remove crap that the macros won't because they only use thoroughly dissolved nutrients. Finally, IME skimmed water accumulates less of a film in the fuge surface.

 

- Maximize the fuge. The skimmer only needs enough room to fit and be removed for cleaning. IMO the design above, while cool looking and unique, has quite a bit of wasted space.

 

So keep thinking outside the traditional sump. It may help to make a list of the things you want to accomplish with a sump. Get really specific.

[Newtybar]

Preferably I want the refugium to be on a separate channel so that DT water goes straight into the fuge and then straight back into the tank from the fuge. I still will have a dedicated skimmer, but I feel this way will ensure all the good stuff gets fed to the refugium.

 

Here's a redesign based on some of the feedback you gave on maximizing the refugium.

 

[Benny314]

Loose the filter sock out of the refugium side.

 

My setup is running a central return chamber.

 

 

The primary drain (full syphon from a herbie setup) goes into the left side via a filter sock. My skimmer used to pick up in there, but my lovely Hydor performer 600 (ebay bargain) is being fed from the bio pellet reactor which has a pump in the return chamber so currently I'm skimming pre and post refugium.

Then the secondary drain (emergency drain that I run at about 20% as opposed to just a trickle) feeds the right most chamber which I have recently expanded. I did have a section ready for an ATO reservoir but I've since added a gravity fed setup so I removed the partition to give me more space for life. The return pump feeds about 400lph to my UV which drains into my refugium to give more flow and even up the water flow from both chambers.

I'd run the Hydor externally like my Aqua One G224 used too giving me more space in the first chamber, but the sump is so high the outflow pipe of the Hydor won't allow me to have it external. It's no big deal, but it does cost me a compartment I could use when I build my recirculating bio pellet reactor. The design I'm going with for the new reactor will require it to be in sump so it's going behind the return pump in the centre then feeding the skimmer again.

[Newtybar]

Seems like central return chamber would be the most simple...