Need advice on how to plumb a refuge

fcatano

New member
I am trying to get my fuge plumb but I am not sure how to do it, either put buffles on my sump tank or connect a separate tank from the sump. Can anybody help? Thanks
 
I'm confused about your setup. What equipment do you have? Is there a sump in the system currently?
 
I currently have a 20 gallon long as a sump but I tried to hook a 10 G next to it to use it for a fuge.

I tried taking water from the sump into the 10 G and send it back to the sump but that did not work, either the sump will empty or viceversa the 10 gallon will dry.
 
I would just buy a small pump to move water from the sump into the refugium, and then have the refugium overflow back into the sump.
 
you can't use two pumps, even if theyre the same pump they'll never pump identically

as bertoni said, what you should do is raise your fuge so that the drain will be higher than the sump (you could do this by only raising it like 4 inches) then drill the top of the fuge and put a drain there, so as the fuge fills up, it drains into the sump
 
You have the wrong idea... all of you. You don't need a pump. You don't need the pumps to pump at the same rate.

What you need is a small container... a tank or a bucket or what not... that you can drain into your sump. Then you need to tap the drain line somehow with a control valve into that container. Problem solved. You need much lower flow through your refugium than through the main body of your sump. You really need not much more than a few gallons per hour. They have these self sealing pin valves that just screw into existing PVC or even metal that would give you plenty of flow. Better yet you could put a T connector in the drain pipe and run a 1/2" PVC from the drain to the refugium.

You could probably do the whole thing for under $20.

Edit: You need to have the refugium higher than your sump slightly. That way you can use gravity to drain your sump rather than a pump. I wouldn't use the glass aquarium for a refugium because it's harder to drain it. Get a plastic food container and put a bulkhead in the side at the depth you want your refugium to be. You cxould put this anywhere above your sump and drain it into your sump with PVC.
 
yep, same idea, no pump

I run a 1/2 line T'd off of my drain to my fuge w/ ball valve, probably have the valve closed about 90% of the way and it just trickles
 
same here but i built mine fuge into the sump so water flows through the sump under the fuge (which acts as a bubble trap) the drain line is t'd 1 1/4 pipe goes to sump 1/4 pipe goes to fuge controlled with a ball valve. Works GREAT!!
 
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