uncleof6
Active member
You cannot drain a tank horizontally, (does not matter where the vertical drops occur) as the drain lines will air lock (trap air) and the system will not function properly. Horizontal runs are on the short list of why drain systems do not work right. Drain lines need to be kept at a 'deep' angle or >=45° for proper function.
Pumping to one tank, and gravitiy feeding to another tank, that gravity feeds back to the source, is what I call a 'double gravity feed,' and it will never balance out right, and eventually, something will overflow. No two drain lines will ever drain identically, just the nature of the beast.
If you wish to run two tanks from one sump (regardless of the tasking of the tanks,) they need to be run as discreet systems. They can share a pump, (the pump will have to be very healthy/large,) certainly, however they should each have discreet drain systems back to the source, or pump. This ensures that water out will always equal water in via the intended routes, hence no floods. (water out will always equal water in, no matter what; sometimes that water out would be over the sides of a tank.)
As far as your concept is concerned, though this is a thread about a particular drain system, you are 'misapplying' the the use of a refugium. As they are used in the hobby, they are high production areas just like the DT, and should be treated as such. In other words, adding a 'refugium' or 'fuge' places additional burden on the system, and an adjunctive aid for nutrient export is still needed in addition to the 'refugium,' the burden upon which the addition of the 'fuge' increases.
A refugium is a 'safe haven' for critters that would be decimated by predation in the main tank. Such critters include seahorses, and various species of macro algae, and others. They should be placed on display, not hidden away in a fish room, in the hopes they will provide nutrient export, which they won't. The distinction is made as soon as you add sand, rock, and life other than algae.
Rather than building a 'nuclear power station' system, you would be better off with a bucket full of sand run on a loop off the sump. It would produce nothing but nitrogen gas, and the specific task being nitrate removal, without the expense and complexity of plumbing multiple tanks, the value of which is very questionable.
Fish rooms are a convenience in some cases, if you can drop straight down to them. Moving horizontally to them, is really more trouble than they are worth, unless the sump is on the oppsite side of the same wall as the DT, and at the same level it would be if under the tank.
Pumping to one tank, and gravitiy feeding to another tank, that gravity feeds back to the source, is what I call a 'double gravity feed,' and it will never balance out right, and eventually, something will overflow. No two drain lines will ever drain identically, just the nature of the beast.
If you wish to run two tanks from one sump (regardless of the tasking of the tanks,) they need to be run as discreet systems. They can share a pump, (the pump will have to be very healthy/large,) certainly, however they should each have discreet drain systems back to the source, or pump. This ensures that water out will always equal water in via the intended routes, hence no floods. (water out will always equal water in, no matter what; sometimes that water out would be over the sides of a tank.)
As far as your concept is concerned, though this is a thread about a particular drain system, you are 'misapplying' the the use of a refugium. As they are used in the hobby, they are high production areas just like the DT, and should be treated as such. In other words, adding a 'refugium' or 'fuge' places additional burden on the system, and an adjunctive aid for nutrient export is still needed in addition to the 'refugium,' the burden upon which the addition of the 'fuge' increases.
A refugium is a 'safe haven' for critters that would be decimated by predation in the main tank. Such critters include seahorses, and various species of macro algae, and others. They should be placed on display, not hidden away in a fish room, in the hopes they will provide nutrient export, which they won't. The distinction is made as soon as you add sand, rock, and life other than algae.
Rather than building a 'nuclear power station' system, you would be better off with a bucket full of sand run on a loop off the sump. It would produce nothing but nitrogen gas, and the specific task being nitrate removal, without the expense and complexity of plumbing multiple tanks, the value of which is very questionable.
Fish rooms are a convenience in some cases, if you can drop straight down to them. Moving horizontally to them, is really more trouble than they are worth, unless the sump is on the oppsite side of the same wall as the DT, and at the same level it would be if under the tank.
