Refugium Design

[Anjaba]

I'm trying to design a fuge to go under my 30 gallon tank. I plan on building it as soon as I buy my skimmer. I drew this design, but have no idea if it will work.. Any input on what would make it better, or what wouldn't work is much appreciated. I don't want a hangover type, only things that is going to be in my tank are return, powerhead and the hang over skimmer. The fuge is going to be 15 gallons and it has to go ~4 feet to return to the tank.

 

 

[Cellenzweig]

Why don't you make your fuge a sump as well. This way you can put the skimmer out of sight. Other than that, it looks pretty good.

[Anjaba]

I want to have as much room as possible for my fuge, but it would be nice to have nothing hanging on the back. How big of a sump area would I need to house a skimmer that would be efficient on 45 gallons of water? I'll have to redesign it a little, helps me think when I do that. Would a just put a topoff in my tank, then that would run go through a sponge/filter, then to my skimmer and then into my fuge. Lemme know if I did that in the right order. I could throw my heater in there as well.

[Cellenzweig]

I'm running a 5g that sits behind and a bit above my 10g. It is fed by an Ehiem 2213 and flows back by gravity. There is room in there for my skimmer pump (hang on back), 5 baffles and a pretty good sized refugium. The baffles are in between the sump area and the fuge area. No bubbles make it through the baffles. The total cost to build was about $35 (Canadian).

 

Really, if you use a 15g tank and have 1/3 of it for a sump, you'll still have plenty of space for a fuge. Even many of the guys I know who have 100g+ systems only have 5-10g refugiums - usually hang on back.

[onthefly]

The problem I see with it......you'll have a pump driving the inlet (from the skimmer) and a pump driving the return. Matching to flow rate can be a real biatch! I like Cellenzweig's idea of just running an over flow, put your skimmer in the fuge/sump and get more room in you main tank for corals!

 

Also, all the baffling is "fluff". You really don't need it, except maybe on the outflow side to help deal with bubbles, and then just a 2-pass would be fine.

[C_Ellenzweig]

You're right - the 5 baffles are a bit of over kill. Two or three would have probably done the job well. The reason I chose to go with 5 is to solve a specific problem. I am running a Seaclone 100 on which I have chopped a couple inches out of the centre tube. This allows much more air/water contact time and makes the skimmer much more efficient, but it also causes many more bubbles to flow into the sump. The five baffles ensure that none make it through.

 

You've also got a good point about matching flow rates. IMO, trying to match the flow rates of two pumps is just asking for a flood on one of the tanks. Gravity is a much better option.

 

Colin

[Anjaba]

Is there anyway I can still put it underneath the tank and not have to worry about matching flow rates?

[rkplucker]

IMO, I would make the return area larger. That is where you will have your evaporation and it's easier to keep up with top off's if that area is larger. (Learned that the hard way)

[onthefly]

Run a gravity overflow into the fuge/sump......run a return pump back to the main tank....you'll never have to worry about matching flow rates/power outtages/restarts/etc. Make sure you use a good overflow, like the ones by lifereef! The CPR's are prone to air pockets!