Help with sump and refugium setup

[xpawn]

I cant decide if i should have seperate sump and refugium or combine sump and refugium using 30 gallon glass tank. If separate the sump will be an 30 gallon rubbermaid tub and refugium will be an 30 gallon glass tank. The refugium will sit next to 100 gallon tank and 30 gallon sump will site below 100 gallon in stand.
Also, what type of pump or pumps would i need?
What would be my advantages and disadvantages of these setups?

 

[_Sooner_2]

Seperate them.

Plusses:
1) More water volume in your system
2) Allows slower flow thru fuge, and whatever flow you desire in the sump
3) Frees up space in the sump for equipment, i.e., a bigger skimmer, feed pump for a calcium reactor, etc
4) My personal favorite reason...fuges are cool to look at. We love to "critter search" in ours.

For a 30gal fuge, you could use a mag 2 or 3. I feed my 55 fuge with a mag 5. The return is widely dispersed. I use a couple of powerheads for circulation.

Ronnie

Ronnie

 

[xpawn]

Sooner, Thanks for the response.
I have decided to have seperate sump and refugium.
would i need 1 or two pumps?
The refugium will sit next to display tank they will be around the same height.

 

[_Sooner_2]

Just decide how much flow you want in both tanks and go with two. My 120 is the 4' version, so I have a mag 9.5 as the main return and the mag 5 feeds the fuge. Both overflows feed into the chamber that houses the skimmer.

If your going to have a calc reactor, my wife came up with a pretty cool idea. The fuge drain hose drops into a plastic pitcher that is a little taller than the water level in the sump. We then ran the drip line from the calc reactor into that pitcher. Draining into the small pitcher creates quite a bit of turbulence. And, then it drops into the sump chamber. Seems to help any excess CO2 blow off without affecting PH levels.

gl amigo. Post some pics of your work in progress. I like pics of the set up process.

Ronnie

 

[xpawn]

Thanks again Sooner.
Okey, I want high flow in the display tank and moderate to low flow in refugium. I'm thinking a mag 9.5 for return and mag 5 for refugium. And I like the calc reactor idea.
I've seen pumps at home depot are they usable or has anyone used one? I was thinking it could be used for both just T off the pump. and send one line to return and another to refugium and regulate using ball valves.
What you all think?

Once i have most of the equipment I'll start posting pics of this project.

 

[captbunzo]

Sorry, gotta jump in. I t hink that 2 pumps for this is a bad idea. You just create more points of failure and more heat. Rather, do this:

   1. tank drains into the fuge
   2. fuge drains into the sump
   3. sump pumps back to the tank

You need very little height difference to let water flow from the tank to the fuge. And flow rates can be identical for each. Just use a Mag 7 for the return pump from the sump to the tank.

As for "slower flow rates in a fuge", that is nothing but mythinformation. Not really necessary. Search for "mythinformation" on this page to hear more details on that from Anthony Calfo:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...age=25&highlight=mythinformation&pagenumber=2

And don't mess with some unknown pump from Home Depot. You won't really save much (if any) money and will cause yourself far more hassle. Go with a Mag Drive as they are tried and true low cost pumps. If you want to spend more for something better, I am sure folks can recommend as well. (Iwaki, for instance)

As for the calc reactor idea, I think that is a neat one. Sounds like a good way to keep pH stable and reduce one of the risks of running a calc reactor.

Honestly, I would recommend that you skip the calcium reactor and invest in an auto-topoff system and use kalkwasser. Contemplate calc reactors if the simple solution (Kalkwasser and auto-topoff (which is great, anyhow)) doesn't work for you.

Just my two cents or so...

 

[xpawn]

Thanks, sooner and captbunzo

I really like the idea of having only one pump.

How's this setup sound.
1.Tank drains to sump
2.mag pumps from sump up to Tank and refugium
3.refugium drains into tank(it sits higher than tank

I want to skim water coming from display tank and allow pods to be pumped into display tank.

All information and comments are welcome.

 

[captbunzo]

That is a GREAT plan. It is sometimes referred to as an upstream refugium.

 

[_Sooner_2]

If your fuge will be higher than the main tank, a gravity return from fuge to tank would be great. Regardless of whether the fuge has it's own feed pump or is a part of a tank-sump-fuge-tank loop. I'm not much of a plumber, so for me, two pumps is the easier solution. lol

Nice link on the Calfo article Paul. I ve often wondered if the mag 5 + 3 power heads was too much in my fuge. According to that article, it's not.

As for the kalk, I tried that route...hated mixing and stirring the kalk. I'm all about low maintenance, so the calc reactor hooked to a controller was the way for me.

GL again xpawn. Post pics when you can.

Ronnie