ryancaudill
New member
I have been looking at sump designs and thought melves reef's were decent ones to emulate and that spurred my original plans. It sure is easier plumbing to have water from the display going into one compartment vs. two. And I definitely think chaeto does not dislike higher fuge flow and O2 levels from microbubbles.
In another 90 gallon tank of mine I have 2 separate acrylic tanks connected with a 1 1/2 inch bulk head. All the water from the display dumps into the 1st compartment (refugium) at the far end of it there is a baffle with teeth. My chaeto has always grown like mad. I take about 1/2 of it out about every 6 weeks. Water then flows through the bulkhead to the 2nd tank and this has my skimmer, return and phosban/carbon pump in it. Water level in this tank is where I get evaporation along with the small section after the baffle in the fuge tank (total ~15 gallons). However the return skimmer tank has a float valve in it that is directly hooked up to my RO/DI. 1/4 vinyl tubing runs up through the ceiling, through the attic and to my garage where my RO/DI is connected though a split from my washing machine hookup. This works great and is a very cheap way for auto top off but can be dangerous.
Once during cleaning out the sump my skimmer got bumped into the float valve and it overflowed everywhere. Luckily it wasnt a big deal because we have tile floors and all my electrical is up off the floor. My salinity dropped to 1.015. Obviously this could have been a much bigger deal. If you could build some sort of protective box around the float valve it would be much safer.
In another 90 gallon tank of mine I have 2 separate acrylic tanks connected with a 1 1/2 inch bulk head. All the water from the display dumps into the 1st compartment (refugium) at the far end of it there is a baffle with teeth. My chaeto has always grown like mad. I take about 1/2 of it out about every 6 weeks. Water then flows through the bulkhead to the 2nd tank and this has my skimmer, return and phosban/carbon pump in it. Water level in this tank is where I get evaporation along with the small section after the baffle in the fuge tank (total ~15 gallons). However the return skimmer tank has a float valve in it that is directly hooked up to my RO/DI. 1/4 vinyl tubing runs up through the ceiling, through the attic and to my garage where my RO/DI is connected though a split from my washing machine hookup. This works great and is a very cheap way for auto top off but can be dangerous.
Once during cleaning out the sump my skimmer got bumped into the float valve and it overflowed everywhere. Luckily it wasnt a big deal because we have tile floors and all my electrical is up off the floor. My salinity dropped to 1.015. Obviously this could have been a much bigger deal. If you could build some sort of protective box around the float valve it would be much safer.
