Sump Design... Whatcha Think?

[True Blue]

Hi all, I am going to get a sump made for my 80 Gal. (hopefully mixed) Reef Tank. What do you guys think of this design?
I know it's not to scale but i am planning to make it 34" - 36" X 14" X 16" - 18" tall.
Do you see any problems with it, or can you make any improvements? I feel like i'm forgetting something.
Also, Should i run Carbon in a reactor, And If so, What section should i run it in?

 

[schneijt]

Looks pretty decent to me, but I have one suggestion. You may find it easier to feed your refugium by teeing off of the return line and using a ball valve to control the flow of water into the 'fuge. There's certainly no problem with feeding it from your drain line, but detritus will end up in the refugium then, meaning you'd need a really thorough team of critters in there to make sure waste didn't decay and cause nitrates and other issues. I know that the idea of a fuge is to help remove organics from the water, but I think that is best left to your macro algae in there.

Also, as far as the detritus, having good flow in your drain/skimmer section means that the detritus will stay in the water column where the skimmer can more easily pull it out. Basically, you don't want detritus to ever settle somewhere. You want it to stay in suspension so it can be removed. That's why I think it might work better to feed the 'fuge from the return line, unless you know for sure that what you put in your refugium will be able to eat detritus and such...

Just my two cents worth. We all have lots of different opinions.
Joe

 

[True Blue]

Thanks Joe, I considered teeing it off from the return line when i was looking at sump/fuge designs,
but i forgot all about it when i was drawing up my final picture...
I'm still not too sure which i would prefer, it seems to me like it would make sense to feed it from the return,
but it also seems like it would stop a lot of the cope pods from making it to the DT,
Like they would just be going in circles from the fuge to the return section to the fuge to the return...
Someone let me know if I've got it all wrong.
Also, What do you think i can put in there to keep detritus to a minimum?