Refug. Middle Or Side

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7555949#post7555949 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HEADCHEF1971
but i think splitting from the drain would be benificial. it will be really hard to have water flow into the fuge from the drain (in) if yo udont have a ball valve in place at the T fitting.if the drain runs in with out a valve water wont flow through the T in the fuge. it will be a little trickie but it can be done. with a little inginuity.
now if you tee off the return , you must use a smaller pipe to reduce to keep the head flow up there. if you use a 3/4 in return pipe in to a 3/4 in T fitting then you reduce the head flow. but if you use the same 3/4 in pipe return into a 3/4 in into a 1/2 in T fitting and feed the 1/2 in pipe into the fuge you dont loose much head. i think that made sence. i hope everyonne understood that LoL!!!!!!!!!

I didn't understand what you just said!

What I would recommend is getting a fairly strong pump, use the calc. on the RC front page and calculate all the turns, bends, etc and see what type of pump u need that will supply the proper GPH.

Remember, a ballvalve from the return going to the refugium is less overhead. So that means it needs less strengh to put out a certain amount of GPH.

I would stay with the same diameter piping. I don't believe in going with smaller pipes so you can achive more flow, that means its more stress on the pump. that can lead to pump malfucntion, running warmer, etc.

Just remember the refugium does not require a lot of flow through it because it needs time to sit in there and soak up nutrients and so on. The sump should ONLY be around 3-5 times the flow of the display tank volume.

Can you list:
1)How many gallons your display tank it
2)What pumps you are considering for the return

Oh yeah, 1 baffles is enough for the refugium due to the low flow. As long as the flow in the sump is 3-5 times, it should keep down the microbubbles.
 
Having set my refugium up teed off the return, i would suggest teeing the feed for the refugium off the drain from your tank if your plumbing will allow it - I had a hell of a time getting things running "just right" with it teed off the return.
 
Wouldn't teeing it off the return be more ideal? The teed off part from the return going to the refugium would kind of be a closed loop because it is using the same amount of water that is overflowing back into the return area. As for the overflow draining into the tank, that would be the same rate as how much the return can pump back up to the display tank.
 
the problem comes from the head pressure difference between the two - even with a 1/2" pipe fr my fuge section (1" to the display) if i open the ball valve on it more than 1/2 way all teh flow from my MAG 5 goes to the 'fuge and nthing makes it back into the tank - it made it very difficult to get the flow balanced.

I added this to a tank and stand i built 6 months ago, so it turned otu that splitting the drain was going to be impossible, or at least very difficult, requiring me to split the return instead.
 
Any questions still needing answered? You guys seem to have it covered pretty well so far. :)
 
I like skimmer>fuge>return design. Here is one I built , single baffle adjustable fuge level, water level depends on the the heigh of the upright pipes. Also controllable flow through the fuge area, valve is to allow water to bypass the fuge, thus slow down the flow if large return pump is used.
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