DIY Sump/Refugium Questions - Help Needed

[Jon770]

Well...I finally decided to build my refugium. I wanted to post my plans and get feedback on it. PLEASE tell me if anything I'm doing will not work or can be done better.

I have a 75G display and the sump/fuge will be a standard 29G (20x12x18).

[NOTE: The sketch is not exactly to scale ]

Water enters in RIGHT chamber from overflow. This section will include my Protein Skimmer (and my UV light, if/when necessary). There are 1-inch baffles to MIDDLE chamber, which is the return. A Mag-9.5 (or Mag-7, I haven't decided yet...any thoughts on that?) will return to display. The return will have a T joint which will allow some of the water to be sent to refugium in the LEFT chamber, which will be controlled by a ball valve. Water enters the fuge through an area filled with rubble rock, and filters into the main fuge area. I will have approximately 4 inches of sand here, along with all the proper algea and critters. I was also planning on taking my heater out of the display and placing in the fuge area of the sump...should that be ok? Also, I will put a PC light over the fuge area (probably an 18W aqualight, or something along those lines); will that be enough light? The water from the fuge then flows back into the MIDDLE chamber through teeth on the baffle and gets returned to the display tank (with a portion going back into the fuge).

Also, what type of silicone should I use to glue the baffles? Do I need special 'aquarium' silicone, or can I use the stuff from HD? Any type I should definitely NOT use?

Are all my baffle heights ok? I think I should have approximately 8 gallons of space left over in case of power outage, etc.

Anything I'm not thinking of that I should do? I don't want to have to make any modifications or re-build once it's made. This is my first attempt at ANYTHING like this, so I may be way off in my plans...

 

[fishykid9212]

I don't know if Im readin gthis right but I would have all the water come in from the left where the skimmer is, then go throught the refugium chamber, then the chamber all the way to the left is where the pump should be pumping the water back up to the tank, thats what I would've done

 

[Jon770]

The thing on the left is just a small chamber within the refugium filled with live rubble rock. It's just to reduce micro-bubbles in refugium. The skimmer is all the way on the right (I labeled it 'Protein' for some reason...it was late at night when I made the diagram).

The reason why I did not do the basic:
SKIMMER --> REFUGIUM --> RETURN
setup is because I didn't want so much flow through the refugium. I though 500-600 gph through a refugium might be a bit much. With my plans, I would be able to send most of the flow back into the display, with the refugium only getting 100-200 gph.

Good Idea? :thumbsup: . . . Bad Idea? :thumbdown . . . Anything?

 

[Toddrtrex]

The only thing I would think of is the height difference of the baffle between the fuge and the return seems a bit much. I wonder if you would get a waterfall effect and create microbubbles in your return. Perhaps put a full set of baffle in there. Granted that would eat up some space, but...

Also I have a 30g sump/fuge for my 75 with a 600 gph return, I have mine set up as Skimmer/fuge/return and haven't noticedt that that is too much flow. Here is a picture of mine. ( note; mine goes from right to left ) HTH

 

[abomb]

I personally think that you should have the overflow go through the skimmer then refugium and then to the return pump. Heres why:

-Its more efficient, all the power from the return pump goes back to the tank
-Micro bubbles are a huge pain in the ***!!!!!!! There will be micro-bubbles from the overflow and the protien skimmer. Having them pass through the fuge helps reduce them a lot
-As for too much flow, heres what I do. I have two baffles that make up the fuge. The water flows over both and flows along the top of the fuge. So eventhough there is like 600 gph going over the fuge, there is almost no movement a few inches below the surface where all the bugs go nuts.

 

[Jon770]

abomb, when you say you have 2 baffles on your fuge, do you mean one on each side, or that there are 2 baffles at the entry/exit of the fuge?

If I do the: SKIMMER --> REFUGIUM --> RETURN , Should my transition from the fuge to the return be with 3 baffles, or is the single baffle with teeth a better way to transfer pods, etc.

 

[Jon770]

bump...

3 baffles from Fuge to Return, or the single baffle w/ teeth on top?

 

[Toddrtrex]

For mine I just used teeth between the fuge and return section. I have the water level at even ( for the most part ) between those two sections so that I do have waterfall effect.

Here is an old picture of that part.
HTH

 

[Jon770]

Thanks...I TOTALLY didn't realize that was even the same sump until I noticed the PVC return line on the left looked similar to your original picture...

Did you just make that platform as a place to put your carbon bags, or does it serve some other purpose?

I pretty much have the same setup as you (75G Display w/ 30G Sump/Fuge), so I might just model mine after yours...What are the inside dimensions on your sump/fuge? (baffle placement, etc.)

 

[Toddrtrex]

Yea those two pictures are about 7 months apart, have alot more in the fuge now

The only purpose of the platform is to hold the bag, no other reason for it.

I don't have any measurements handy at the moment, but I will take
some tonight and some more pictures.

But in the meantime, here is the thread I had when I made it, some more pictures in it

HTH