I am planning on replacing my present sump this summer and I am looking for opinions.
Most sump layouts that I have looked at show the water entering the sump, going through mechanical (filter floss, carbon, phosphate remover, etc) filtration and pick up for skimmer (some recommend skimmer pick up first and then mechanical filtration) then through the algae/refuge chamber and then back to the tank.
I'm wondering if it would make more sense to have all the tank water going into a refuge area (like Frick-n-Frag shows here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=400901 ) first as a sort of pre-sump. This would allow the algae to remove most of the nutrients (phosphates, etc) before we chemically remove them. The algae should grow faster (having more phosphates, etc) and the chemical remover should last longer. The algae would become the main method to "clean" the water while the chemical remover and skimmer would be the back up to remove what the algae did not.
Does this make sense? Should I go back to the drawing board?
Vickie
Most sump layouts that I have looked at show the water entering the sump, going through mechanical (filter floss, carbon, phosphate remover, etc) filtration and pick up for skimmer (some recommend skimmer pick up first and then mechanical filtration) then through the algae/refuge chamber and then back to the tank.
I'm wondering if it would make more sense to have all the tank water going into a refuge area (like Frick-n-Frag shows here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=400901 ) first as a sort of pre-sump. This would allow the algae to remove most of the nutrients (phosphates, etc) before we chemically remove them. The algae should grow faster (having more phosphates, etc) and the chemical remover should last longer. The algae would become the main method to "clean" the water while the chemical remover and skimmer would be the back up to remove what the algae did not.
Does this make sense? Should I go back to the drawing board?
Vickie