sump design

[slant77]

which layout would be more benificial?

skimmer/refuge/return or
skimmer/return/refuge

thanks for your input

 

[slant77]

bump

 

[M.Anderson]

Here is a link that I feel is very beneficial while designing sumps,
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

You may have to copy and paste the address, but this should give you some ideas of the benefits of each setup.

M.Anderson

 

[slant77]

yes i have checked that out and he has both styles and really no information to say one is better than the other

 

[stewie24]

refuge, skimmer, return.
If you have a nice skimmer, it will pull some of the organics, etc that the fuge is designed to utilize first.
My theory is this:
Let the dirty water go to the fuge first as a "prefilter" (like an ro unit) and then the skimmer do the fine polishing (like the DI part of an ro unit), then return the clean water back to the display.
That is how I did my one 55 gallon sump/fuge and it works like a charm.
Stewie

 

[Pete1399]

IMO, don't sweat it. Unless your turnover rate is really low your skimmer will never filter all of the water before it gets to the fuge. Just set up your sump/fuge any way you want and it will still work fine for its purpose.

 

[Milhouse]

How about skimmer, return, refuge. Split off your line from your overflow so that part goes to the refuge, part to the skimmer. Both overflow to the return.

 

[sonicboom141]

put return in the middle with a baffle or overflow split feeding half of water to each area, letting each part get raw tank water. You dont want the skimmer to remove what the fuge just did,a nd you want the fuge to have slower current to have enough time to do its job, by having a valve letting less water into that area.