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Cultivated Reef

Shallow Sump/fuge


Veng

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Ok, so I've got a 20L setup (see sig) and the original sump plans went out the window. This tank sits directly behind the 20L at the same level as the 20L on a counter top. This pretty much drives the width and height to 11x7.5".

 

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So Here's what I have so far. Overflow from tank goes in about where I've labled the "overflow from tank" for the lack of a better term. To the left will be fuge and upflow algee scrubber, then 3 baffles, then the return pump. The return pump will probably sit in a cage to keep the cheato out, although I've been thinking of trying to put some kind of cheato filter before the baffles.

 

To the right of the overflow is a 2" chamber who's water tight wall/baffle is 1/4" short of the lid. In the case that the sump would overflow (because I'm an idiot, whatever), it would flow in here instead of the floor. To the right of that, will be the ATO reservior. The wall seperating it from the emergency sump overflow chamber will be 1/2 from the top (1/4" from the emergency overflow chamber) so any extra volume from the ATO reservoir (say when it's half empty, etc) can be used for extra volume for the emergency sump overflow.

 

As drawn, the Emergency sump overflow would have a volume of 0.6G, the ATO 2.5G, and the sump proper 5.8G.

 

There will be no skimmer in this sump. It will run off fuge and possibly an upflow turf scrubber. I'll probably end up using 5-6 float switches to drive everything. High/low sump switchs, an emergency sump water detection switch (high float switch placed at the bottom of the section), and high/low ATO switches. Run it all through an apex and it should give me more than enough to be able to run the ATO, several fault conditions, and an outlet for automated ATO resevior refills (as I'd probably just let the water overflow when I was pumping it into the ATO, as the placement of the sump, it can't easily be poured or siphoned in.)

 

Thoughts? I think I've got it all figured out, but a second set of eyes to spot the "gotchas" is really needed. It's much easier to find them now than after I end up with this thing built installed and I say "oh ####".

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i would highly consider siphon breaks in the tubes :) this way in case somethin gets clogged its not going to flood anything out. I use a 20l for a sump.. I have a skimmer, return pump, soon to be reactor + my leds over top of it. so its great

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One of the things I like most about my sump is that the only place the water level varies is in the return chamber. This helps the ATO be more exact. A small amount of evaporation will lower the level in the return chamber enough to trigger the ATO instead of having to lower the entire sump, which would require a larger amount of evaporation (and a greater change in salinity). I'm not sure if that's what you have planned. Where is your water level going to be typically and where is your ATO sensor located?

Currently, the plan would be for the the return and the fuge to be effectively at the same water level (the middle baffle low enough that it is not an "overflow" of any sort.) The fuge is currently running a pretty low flow ~100GPH, although I'm considering raising that to 300 GPH. I'm not 100% right now what I want to do there. I'm seeing sticky points with the low flow. I like the return line not being a major source of flow, but at the same time, it doesn't feel like it's getting much flow, despite it's turning over 3x an hour which is more than enough to keep everything in equilibrium.

 

My return pump just has a two baffle bubble stop. I'm not sure what the benefit is of the third baffle, except something else that you have to clean. Maybe I'm missing something.
The third baffle increases the amount of bubble stoppage power. I intend to run a 6" air stone and upflow algee scrubber. At the current flow rate, it's clearly not needed. If I increase this I'm not so sure. In the end, it takes roughly an inch away from the fuge area of the sump to add it and I feel better about it. I doubt I'll ever scrub it, so I'm not sure what you mean by extra cleaning. Can you elaborate?

 

I like the idea of the emergency overflow, but when everything starts back up again, that water is trapped and isn't going back into the tank. Which means your ATO is going to make up the difference which will drop your salinity. And you are going to have to siphon out that water from the emergency overflow.
I would view significant amounts of water entering the emergency overflow as a "critical failure". I'd have a high float switch in the fuge area that would force the return pump on, and if water enters the emergency overflow then really bad things have happened. It's more a protection for electronics outside the sump, than the floor or the salinity. If water entered the emergency overflow to any significant amount, I'd have to siphon it out. If it entered the ATO, then it would I would have to remove the ATO water. But if it's a choice between wasting 2 gallons of RO/DI and having 2 gallons of water come out of the sump, I'd much rather the first bit of water contaminate my ATO, by far. I hope that makes sense.
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I think your sump is roughly the same size as mine. I've had my fuge running at 250 GPH originally. I diverted some of the return pump to a GFO reactor and now it's running at around 150 GPH. Either way, it was never really enough flow in the fuge, so I broke down and added a power head in there.

I'd rather have flow from powerheads than overflow and return if I can. So many more options for what to do with the flow if it's coming out of a powerhead, and really you can only put so much flow in a tank.

 

 

I don't run any mechanical filtration, so there is lots of crap that builds up in between the baffles. I tend to have to suck all that out once a month or so. I also get GHA on all the baffles that often needs to be scraped off and sucked out.
I have a filter sock on mine, and really I'd be happy to let GHA grow on my baffles up to a point. I suppose at some point it would start choking flow and that would be bad. I'm thinking between the the up flow algae scrubber and the filter sock I'll be ok.

 

That all makes sense I think. I like the emergency overflow idea.
Thanks!
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I did end up building this, so I figured i'd post a few pictures back in this thread.

 

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I still need to add an equipment holder bracket (temp probe, pH probe, heater) and finish the lid. But those will have to wait till after my Apex gets delivered.

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You've got a full mac setup in your place don't you? That would make it nice and easy to setup, which is half the reason I didn't go with the router. I would have spent a day setting it up.

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