Sump design question...

dannieboiz

dannieboiz

Active member
Trying to get creative and make use of all the space I have in this little 36" sump I'm building. I have a 42" sump that would be a better choice but due to the huge pipes that I have, I'm gonna have to use the 36" instead.

I wanted to have a fuge and a frag section all in one so I thought I'd put eggcrates over the top of the middle chamber and grow cheatos on the bottom and have my frags sitting on the top of the eggcrates. I'll have a 175w metal halide under my stand above this area, that's plenty of lights for the cheato even with the frags above it.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5670/fugene9.jpg
 
dannieboiz- I am thinking of doing the same thing, fuge and frag tank in one. Few questions though, 1. what lights are you using? 2. Are they going to be on a reverse cycle to help balance our PH? 3. What will the frag shelf height be below the water level? 4. Are you going to use any other macros besides cheato? Maybe mangroves?
 
1. what lights are you using?
I have a spare 175w metal halide that I will be using. I'm thinking a 10k or even a 6500k bulb will do the trick. It'll be about 15" above the water level

2. Are they going to be on a reverse cycle to help balance our PH?
Definitely will be on reverse cycle for 2 reasons.
- As you mentioned Balance the PH
- Save electricity

3. What will the frag shelf height be below the water level?
I just realiaze that I screwed up on the measurement.

Fuge(lower) 22Lx15Wx6H
Frag(upper) 22Lx15Wx7H
Because the nature of the eggcrate spread across the entire surface I don't have worry about it falling off and get lost behind rocks etc like it would in the display.

4. Are you going to use any other macros besides cheato? Maybe mangroves?
At this point I see the possiblity of adding some Grape Caulerpa along with the cheatos, I don't see the chance for mangroves to grow since they grow upward.


Someone also mentioned to me about the possiblity that cheato would grow upward through the eggcrates and get caught onto the frags. That would be a bad.
 
What kind of frags are you talking about also? Generally, you have a pretty low flow through the refugium. Will you have enough flow to support the frags you keep down there?
 
Most of you may think that a fuge doesn't require flow, but in reality they do like flows. I going to have 1200gph rushing down the drain and @ the bottom, I'm going to have 900gph of flow zipping through my external skimmer squirting into the fuge, besides with the help of a modded MJ1200 I don't think I'll have a flow issue down there.

I'll be growing mainly SPS (note MH) and some very lucky zoa will get their own little spots down there too.

Another design I drew up have 1/2" holes across the bottom which would force the water to flow through the bottom then flow towards the top.
 
I didn't say they don't require flow, just that it's normally lower than what's in your display tank, possibly making it less than ideal for sps or other high flow loving corals. If your specific fuge has that much flow than it should be great for sps as you obviously know.

However, there are benefits to having a lower flow in the fuge like building up colonies of copepods and amphipods, etc. But that's another issue, with that kind of flow the frag rack should work great.
 
woz9683, you've just brought up a very important issue that made me wanna rethink this layout. I totally forgot about the copepods.

I was just gonna give it a go but I'm glad I consulted with you folks first.
 
Glad I could help.

Hmmm, what if you limited the flow to the lower area by making the shelf a little more solid. Maybe just a thin sheet of acrylic under the eggcrate (so you still have a structure on which to place corals). You could cut large slots in the ends of the acrylic so the flow over your last baffle would still reach the underside of the sheet, or you could just stop the acrylic before it gets to the edges of the shelf. If you did that you could put that powerhead above the shelf and it would increase the flow to the top half. I don't think the acrylic would cut down on light transmission to the chaeto enough to keep it from growing.

Just a thought, I don't know if you would end up with stagnant water under that shelf or not. What do you think?
 
The (nearly) solid sheet would also keep your chaeto from growing up through the cracks of the eggcrate.
 
here's the new layout that I'm considering

I'm now moving the skimmer pump outside of the tank making the whole drain chamber my frag section. This will create in restricted flows from both the display drain as well as the skimmer return that are fed into this area.

The eggcrate will elevate everything up by 3" giving plenty of room to keep any frags from being sucked into the Skimmer pump.

I've also increased my water level for the Frags to grow to 10" tall.

Frag/Fuge will each be ~ 14.5x15x13


No more worries of cheatos growing onto the frags.

Mangroves can be added if I ever dicided to go that route. :D

Any objections?


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9529711#post9529711 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismhaase
dannie- how long is your light cycle for your displat and how many hours for your fuge/prop tank?
Click to expand...


Here's how it's going to look:

3pm: VHO actinic on,
--> 30 min later T5 460nm actinic on
--> 30 min later -->250w 10k Reeflux on
--> 8hrs later, MH off
--> 30 min later T5 off
--> 30 min after that VHO actnic off/Moon lights kicks in.

So by roughtly 1am there should only be moonlight.

All controlled by ACJR (except for the moonlight) which I think I'll throw on a timer, kinda of a waste of a socket on the DC8 if it's just for moonlight.
 
Last edited:
Looks like the new plan avoids the need to discuss flow issues and conflict with the chaeto, but just in case you change your mind, I have built something similar and found that a small "shelf" coming off the drain/ return line allows the water to pass along the top of the fuge (hitting the frags) without disturbing the water below (the copepods).

If you don't put in a "shelf" the water goes over the top of the divider and plunges down, disturbing the sand and chaeto and sending the flow away from the frags which are placed higher.
 
I like that much better, mainly because now you have a straight shot from your skimmer pump to the actual skimmer. Depending on the type of pump/skimmer it could be more efficient the new way. Also, the frags should get good random flow there, as they are right next to the drain from the tank.
 
The skimmer is an EV-180, I had it running this exact way on my old setup except for it was located to the left of the sump and the return went straight into the return chamber.

I recently threw out the giant OR3500 and got a Dolphin DP-900 to use with the skimmer. This is supposed to be more quiet and efficient.

Sheldon337
I plan on running the return across the bottom and drill a bunch of holes into it so it would spray across the bottom. Similar to a spray bar.
 
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