45g sump dilemma

[MSU Fan]

So, some of you are aware, but we are going to be starting up a 45g cube (25x25x18) over the winter, and moving the current inhabitants of my 12g AP over to this tank. This list includes a mantis shrimp, serpent star, and yellow tailed blue devil damsel (I think that's what it's called). Due to the messy nature of some of the inhabitants, I am trying to figure out the sump system.

In this, the tank size works against me. And I wanted to take advantage of items I already have. So I have an acrylic sump from another tank (21x9x15), and a 10g AGA. I would like to utilize both. The acrylic sump would house the skimmer.

The flow I see would go from the tank overflows to the acrylic sump, and then overflow again into the 10g, where the return pump will be. What this design lacks is a fuge of any kind, and I am trying to decide whether or not I should have one...or maybe just some macro in the display? What do you think?

 

[jandlms]

I think there are many benefits to having a fuge of some sort. They have all been discussed ad nauseum here on RC. I would shy away from a lot of macro in your main tank as (IMO) you probably want to do nutrient export by pruning. When you yank a bunch of fast growing macros (I.E caulerpa or chaeto) out of your display you end up with tipped rocks and other unsightly problems associated with pruning (unless you bonzai prune only a stem every day or two). If the macros are in the sump you can avoid this as a problem.
Why not try and dedicate part of the acrylic sump to macros/fuge and put both the skimmer and the return pump into the 10 gallon????? Unless your skimmer is huge (remember most guys have a distorted view of how big their pipes are) you should be able to fit both into a 10 gallon.
Lastly if you are interested, I have an old large acrylic sump that you can have. Plumb the whole mess to your basement and put in as big a sump/refugium system as you want..

 

[MSU Fan]

Thank Jon - I am going to stay away from the basement sump on this one . I still have to mod the pump for the skimmer, so I'm not really positive on the floor space in the 10g being enough, but it probably is. The biggest problem with that is keeping the water level consistent since that will be the evap point. I do plan on keeping an ATO. The other thing is I will need to keep an eye on how high the water will need to be in the 10g to run the skimmer, but still compensate for the water level in the event of a failure...

 

[Aquabucket]

Re: 45g sump dilemma

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13784591#post13784591 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MSU Fan
I am trying to decide whether or not I should have one...or maybe just some macro in the display? What do you think?

If you can't set-up a fuge, macro in the display can be a good way to go. I hide wads of chaeto behind my rock-work and it grows wildly. Pruning it is a piece of cake. What's good about having the macro in my display is the pods have a place to reproduce and it gets plenty of light.

Many times people tend to under light their macro in their fuges. This creates somewhat of an imbalance as nuisance algae in the display will have the same amount of nutrients to grow off of but will typically have much more light to fuel that growth.

I actually have my highest par daylight bulb located in the back almost directly over the chaeto so it actually gets more light than anything else in the display.

This pic was taken just after pruning:

As you can see it is unnoticeable from the front of the tank and can only be seen from one side and above.

The only drawback to having it in the display is the reverse light cycle you can get with a remote fuge but I don't have much of a PH swing anyway.

 

[MSU Fan]

Good advice Spike - just don't really know yet.

I think I can definitely add a fuge to the sump (somehow), but I am not really sure yet how I would do that. I need to spend some time looking at the tanks and figuring how to accomplish that.

 

[siropa]

why don't you partition off the acrylic sump into 2 parts. one for the skimmer and one for the fuge. you can have the main flow go to the skimmer area and use a smaller pump to move water from the skimmer area to the fuge part. the fuge would overflow back into the skimmer area.

 

[MSU Fan]

hmmm...I'll have to look at that!

 

[customcolor]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13785485#post13785485 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by siropa
why don't you partition off the acrylic sump into 2 parts. one for the skimmer and one for the fuge. you can have the main flow go to the skimmer area and use a smaller pump to move water from the skimmer area to the fuge part. the fuge would overflow back into the skimmer area.

+1 and on the devider put some teeth on it so shen you do some prunning, little peices that get away dont end up else were in the system.

 

[siropa]

I did something almost exactly like I described on my last 75g setup. worked really nice for the fuge. and I had the teeth on it like CC mentioned.

 

[MSU Fan]

So the acrylic sump is actually sort of 2 chambers already - they meet together at a pass under baffle. So maybe I'll turn the one side into the fuge area, then the other side can still be the skimmer area...

maybe I can have the returns go into the skimmer side. Then seal off the other side and have Bill's plan be used for pumping in to the other section.

I'll have to work on some sketches this weekend and try to gauge the plan.

 

[Bri Guy]

get a small plastic basket, like strawberries come in, but bigger, and have it float in your sump, with cheato in it, kinda a free floating fuge within the sump.