Concept of refugium

[edsimmons]

This is a concept drawing of my want-to-be refugium.it’s a 90 gallon plexi tank that I will add a baffle to make 67 gallon area for macro algae and 3” layer of live substrate, what do you think about GARF grunge? Do you guys see any thing that maybe a potential problem. What type and wattage of lighting do you suggest?

Thank you for any info

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/edsimmons/90g.jpg

 

[Reefugee]

You're going to experience microbubbles like mad. Bubbles from your skimmer will be returned to the main tank. You need baffles to get rid of bubbles before it hits the return pump. A common design might have something with three separate compartments.

 

[edsimmons]

so maybe a 3" pice of pvc around the skimmer outlet?

 

[jlfnjlf]

Ed,

This is an old drawing from when I was designing my sump. The skimmer output is now in the far left section. However you can see the baffles between the skimmer and the center refugium section.

I can shoot off some photos of the sump in action or you can stop by and take a look.

John

 

[Reefugee]

Ed -

Check out this site for some ideas. http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

I am not quite sure what a 3" piece of PVC is going to do around the skimmer outlet. Also - don't use too large of a pump for your sump return.

 

[edsimmons]

Yeah John I would like to come over a take a look at your sump and also check out you back yard for the landscape design we talk about last night.I now with the Holliday come up it'll be crazy this weekend so maybe next week sometime?

 

[jlfnjlf]

Ed,

Shoot me a PM on Tuesday, and we can set something up.

Minh has a very very good point. I stuck a 1500 GPH pump on my sump and all I got was lots and lots of bubbles. That is why I got the Little Giant from you. My sump is liking the 600 GPH a lot better. Now the big pump will feed my Ocean Motions super squirt.

John

 

[edsimmons]

Maybe more like this?

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/edsimmons/90g.jpg

 

[edsimmons]

oops more like this

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/edsimmons/90gv.jpg

 

[sumyungviet]

i would say, add more water volume into where the return pump is, by making the baffles higher, that way you have to top off evaporation less.

 

[Reefugee]

That's why you build in an auto-topoff system. ;-) Seriously though - Sumyungviet is correct. Make your baffle taller - but not just for the auto topoff issue, but due to the pump sucking in air. It also give your bubble a great chance of dissipating before hitting the return pump.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8802840#post8802840 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sumyungviet
i would say, add more water volume into where the return pump is, by making the baffles higher, that way you have to top off evaporation less.

 

[edsimmons]

ok that makes sence, the baffles now are 6" tall 2" away from each other and 1" form the bottem on the "flow unders".

 

[SteveC56]

Also the waterfall noise from the refuge to the return area would we very loud so the extra water height would help but I don't know if that alone would be enough

 

[palileo]

how about building a wall just after the fuge that has one of those "flow unders" and you can have bioballs held in place to diffuse the water coming down from the fuge to the return area. i've heard of people doing this in overflow boxes. i've also heard a couple times that bioballs are not that great to have for some reason, don't remember... i see them in sumps for sale at lfs. don't really know about how good or bad this is so hopefully someone can chime in and shed some light on the bioball issues... i'm sure it would cut down on the noise though...

you can put covers on all the holes on the the top of the whole thing and probably minimize the noise also. it works on my hob overflow...

 

[pbetito]

If I am not mistaken, I believe that the reason bio balls are not wanted in a reef is that they are a trap for nitrates. I use cotton fiber to both catch particles and act as a muffler. The nice thing about it is that it can be thrown away and changed often, unlike the bio balls. I also owe the credit to Justin77 for telling me that the arts and crafts stores sell a GIANT bag of it for the price of a page the size of a 3x5 card at the local fish store. Also, the covers on the top of the OF are a godsend as far as quiet is concerned!

 

[Reefugee]

Steve brings up a very good point. Although I didn't do this with my sump, one of the things I thought about after the fact was that I could have made the last baffle at a slight angle so that the water doesn't fall over the baffle - but flows down on the baffle. This would cut down on the waterfall effects.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8804028#post8804028 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SteveC56
Also the waterfall noise from the refuge to the return area would we very loud so the extra water height would help but I don't know if that alone would be enough

 

[edsimmons]

ok more like this

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/edsimmons/90gv-1.jpg

 

[sumyungviet]

are you going to raise the baffles on the left side after the skimmer, if you are wanting the skimmer to be in low depth so that the skimmer sucks more air, you could raise that up on a little platform.