Sump/refugium location

[shadowglen]

Currently I have a 55g glass tank that has not been drilled for overflow. I would like to add a sump/refugium to my system. I have used hang on overflow systems in the past but have had multiple flooding issues. I was thinking that I might be able to get around this problem by placing my acryilc sump (37g acrylic tank) above my tank with water pumping out of the display tank into the sump and then overflowing back into the display. Has anyone tried this approach...if so I would love to here about it. Also any suggestions would be greatly appreaciated.

 

[ERB82]

bump

 

[McCrary]

You could always just drill a hole in the back of the tank. It would mean breaking down the tank, but it would be worth it to hide the sump under the tank and not have to worry about flooding issues.

 

[Salamander]

On my old tank had kind of a side by side. Fuge was a little higher and drained to the display by gravity.

Not really done out of worries of floods. I just wanted to see my fuge. I used a HOB overflow from Lifereef and had no problems in several years.

 

[littlefish72]

A friend of mine had a fuge above his tank and the cool thing about it was the critters in the fuge were about as cool to look at as the main tank was

 

[littlefish72]

A friend of mine had a fuge above his tank and the cool thing about it was the critters in the fuge were about as cool to look at as the main tank was

 

[SaltyMember]

A sump/refugium above the tank will work, but if you are you just placing a refugium above the tank or were you planning on having a skimmer there also?

A refugium would work better because the flow required is less and the water gravity feeding back to the display would be a gentler flow. If you are trying to feed a skimmer above the tank you will need more flow and I think the potential for having bubbles returning back to the display would be an issue.

 

[shadowglen]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

The reason I want to put the refugium above the tank is that I really don't want tear down my tank and drill holes in it. I probably should have thought about that before purchasing a tank but it was definitely an impulse buy. And I am torn between this type of setup vs. a hang on overflow (

The refugium will actually be in my garage, not visible when viewing the display tank (unfortunately)...I was going to plumb it through the wall. I just wanted to take comfort in the fact that it has been done before.

SaltyMember - I was going to place my skimmer in the first section of the sumpwhere the intake is, followed by a DSB and then the fuge, which overflows into the return and back to the tank. I was concerned about bubbles though...have to do a little more planning.

 

[shadowglen]

bump