Sump and Refugium project...

[Fraggin Coral]

I was hoping that I could get some input on something I'm planning to do. I want to create a sump and refugium for my 24g AP. I have a 10g AGA and a 5.5g AGA to work with.

 

I want to use the 5.5g as the refugium and the 10g as the sump.

 

Here is my design:

 

Can you tell me if this makes any sense at all? I don't trust myself to drill glass so I was thinking that I could add about 2 inches of plexi-glass around the top to the 5.5g and drill that. I wanted to do a gravity return from the refugium to the sump.

 

If this would work at all, what kind of pump do you think I should use to pump into the fuge from the sump so I get the correct flow through it?

 

Here is what it looks like from the top down:

 

Sorry about the bad drawings. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[JonRigby2005]

I have never done this and am planning something similar. I was going to have my return from the fuge go to the same chamber as my return from the tank so it also has to go through the bubble trap before returning to the main tank.

 

But I was also thinking of either adding another bubble trap in the sump before the return pump or only one bubble trap before the return instead of in the drain chamber. This way the water from the fuge won't go through the protein skimmer untill it goes through the main tank first, and hopefully won't add any micro bubbles in the display.

[DKreefkeepers]

you guys thinking about something similiar to this?

 

 

Split Sump

[JonRigby2005]

I will be turning a 10G tank into a sump, and a 5G tank into a fuge. My brother in law has them laying around not being used so I am going to take them off his hands and add some baffles.

 

I was thinking something like this

[Fraggin Coral]

Jon - I like your design. Are your tanks glass and are you planning to drill them?

[JonRigby2005]

Yeah, they are glass, I have the 5g, and the 10g, still gotta buy the 29g.

Then I am going to drill 2x .5" or .75" returns (not sure yet), and a 1" drain. Still gotta buy a dremel, baffles, more live rock, more substrate, all my plumbing, build an auto top off, buy a skimmer (haven't decided which). This is going to be an expensive project, I am just trying to buy piece by piece over the next couple months.

[distantfire]

Fragging coral you want a slow flow going thru your fuge 230gph seem's to work very good. It also look's like you have 3 pumps in your drawing. And 3 pumps would produce a lot of unwanted extra heat. I think in the long run you would be better off using your 10gal for a sump/fuge. And use the spare 5.5 for a QT or frag tank. The maxi-jet pumps I bought have all been working fine so you might want to check them out.

 

Jon I think you should run the drain from the display straight over to your 5.5 refugium. And remove the valve nearest to your return pump. You don't want to choke off your pump because it shortens the life of the pump. Shop around for a return pump that gives you the best water flow minus the head loss.

[JonRigby2005]

distantfire, you don't think all the water draining through a 1" pipe would cause to much flow through the fuge. I just thought that the other way I would have more control over the flow in the fuge. I was planning on having the valve closest to the pump wide open, but having it just in case, so if it creates too much flow I won't have to go buy a new pump.

[distantfire]

I don't think all the water draining thru a 1" pipe would cause to much flow. The 3 baffels in your fuge work in your favor to slow down the water coming out of that 1" pipe. Just don't add a valve to that 1" drain line to try and control the water flowing into your fuge. Because 1.] You can overflow your display tank if you close the valve off to much. And 2.] It makes a gurgling noise as the water try's geting thru the valve and enters the fuge. The real trick is buying the right return pump to start with. And to help you there is a head loss calculator on the lower left side of the home page on www.reefcentral.com