"mystery chamber" in sump...

[xiaohuang7]

hey reefers, got a used sump... what the heck is this middle chamber (B) for? the way it's designed, it has very little flow!

i would guess chamber A is the return pump, given all the baffles to minimize bubbles. so that would make chamber A the intake.

do skimmers and reactors normally go into A or B? and again, what's B for? refugium?

 

[xiaohuang7]

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[hkgar]

I mad my own and have 3 chambers. 1st is return from the tank, 2cn is for any equipment, e.g. skimmer, dosing, etc., 3rd is for return to the tank.

 

[mcgyvr]

Chamber A is for overflow drain pipes and your skimmer.. B could be used for chaeto/macro algae..
C is for the return pump.

 

[hkgar]

You have the flow going the wrong way. Flow should be from A to B to C. And back to tank in C

 

[ReefNomad]

hkgar is correct, your flow is reversed. The large chamber on the left is designed for the massive chop and flow created by the drain lines dumping there, while the smaller chamber to the right is behind a strainer baffle, to prevent solids from reaching the return pump. There is also a hose bracket on the return side, so you can run ATO as well as dosing lines to the return chamber, and not have your skimmer process them first. Lastly, you usually want the small area for your return, so that the water level drops in that chamber alone. That keeps the salinity swings between top-offs to the smallest range possible. One inch of water lost in the big chamber is about 3x as much water as one inch lost from the small side.
That middle chamber is perfect for your skimmer... it won't have the surge of the drain lines to contend with like it would in the left chamber, and that middle chamber will always maintain the same depth, so your skimmer can be dialed in perfectly for that constant depth.

 

[xiaohuang7]

oh yes of course, my bad, C is the return pump section. i'll have another sump for macro algae, so if skimmers and media reactors etc go into B...

then what's the best use for A, it's quite large (maybe 25 gallons) to dedicate solely to overflow input... can it be useful for anything else?

such as sticking in a bunch of live rock? marine bio-balls?

thx for all the replies