sump/refugium chamber order

[Noc]

Hello all I've been lurking around this and another forum for a few months now. I currently have a 72gal bowfront mixed reef with a wet/dry filter. My tank is overloaded I'd admit (I got really carried away with this hobby).

Anyhow I got my pre-drilled 125gal last night and I am in the process of putting it all together slowly. I want a sump/refugium and need advice on the best order to put the chambers in.

I'm thinking of going with a 43gal long tank with 3 chambers.

I've been doing a lot of reading and notice people do things differently as there seems to be no real right way to set these things up. I could be wrong. Here is what I was thinking.

Overflow from pre-drilled 125 DT into;

chamber one - MSX160 skimmer (ordered)

chamber two - return to DT (don't have a return pump speced yet). The return line will T off with a ball valve that flows into chamber three.

chamber three - refugium with baffles to flow back into chamber two. The flow will be controlled by the ball valve off the T.



My reasoning based on reading is that the refugium should have a slower water flow but I see a lot of setups where the refugium is in chamber two and the return in chamber three and the water flow seems to pass over the refugium rather quickly.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Noc

 

[kielty]

You got it. Go with the third as a fuge and middle return...makes
life so much simpler to tweak all of your flows. I also put in a tee off the line to my fuge to run my phos and carbon reactors with a
1/2" valve on the phos so I can set them up to the perfect flow rates as well and no additional pumps req'd. (make sure your
Return pump is adequate or bigger.

 

[rbursek]

Mine is the lader of the 2, DT overflow with skimmer, double baffle, fuge, double baffle then the return pump area, can not keep large amounts of Cheato, but maybe water is to clean to support it.

 

[Noc]

Thanks for the confirmation Kielty.

rbursek why can't you keep large amounts of Cheato?

My plan for the fuge is to have lots of copepods for a Mandarin some day. Plus I love the ecosystem of the fuge outside of the DT.

 

[rbursek]

I do not know I have some that is growing out of the sand bed and rubble in the fuge, I have add 3 balls of it twice and it dies of over time, I think the water is too clean and not enough nutrients for it in large amounts, but my buddy hase a pure tank and his flourishes, I have the same light has him, but more flow thru the fuge in my set up, so that could be it also.

 

[osprey3883]

Noc,
Not sure if you have looked at the do it yourself forum, but there are a ton of discussions about sump/refugium setups.

HTH,
Matt

 

[Noc]

osprey3883 I did browse around there and got a lot of ideas. Almost information overload though. I even went as far as trying to build a acrylic 125 myself until I found out the price of sheets shipped and the amount of work and the cost was too much.

 

[Noc]

Here is another thought for my setup that also ties into a problem that rbursek is having that I am foreseeing.

If the use the return water to drain into the fuge would the water be too clean?

Would if be a good idea to have the overflow pipe teed off leading to the fuge? This would mean some water gets skimmed and very little doesn't allowing the fuge to actually work as intended.

I' not sure which is the best way to go?

 

[kielty]

Noc, Fuge will work as intended...my cheato grows like crazy and
in my newlly set up 110 the fuge is starting to get tonnes of pods.
Another way I tweaked mine from ideas on this forum and melev's site is to lower the baffle between the fuge and return to handle
a longer time for top ups...works well....just my opinion...

 

[Kevomac]

Melev built my sump and recommended the plumbing. (Doesn't mean it's the only way to go, but I do trust his opinion.) He put the skimmer and fuge sections on the ends and the return in the middle. I have two overflows. One drains directly into the skimmer section, the other drains partially into the fuge and partially into the skimmer section. I have a ball valve that allows me to control how much goes into the fuge (i.e. ball valve controls how much water goes into the fuge, while the rest is diverted to the skimmer). I can't keep chaeto growing well, either, but my nitrates read zero, so it may not be enough nutrients.

BTW, he built baffles for bubble control on the skimmer end, and teeth for flow control on the fuge end. If I increase the flow into the fuge, I get microbubbles. Oh, and I have yet to set up a skimmer. The tank seems to run well without it so far. Been up since last July and so far so good.