whats behind the curtain ?

[sbertomen]

I really love the full tank shots, but now any chance of some working sump pictures? I need to build one.

archer8681 - Dave, I followed your 90 from the beginning and plagiarized most of your sump plans, but I was not able to understand exactly the flow to/from the refugium. Sorry if this is a simple concept - for some reason I have real problems understanding plumbing principles.

I thought most people have separate refugiums don't they?

Sorry to ask - I know it is probably harder to take pictures of sumps than tanks - thanks in advance for taking the trouble.

sara

 

[gary greguire]

http://www.reefvideos.com/reefshowcase_04_content.html
there is a great sump video on this site that some nice person refered me to.

 

[Ken668]

Sara, here is a simplified diagram of how my sump is laid out. This is sump v3.0. I went through two 20g setups before I was happy with this 30g layout. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[archer8681]

Thats a little more elaborate than mine with the 2 return pumps. What skimmer are you using? My G3 skimmer takes up most of my intake section.

Sara, there are different ways I saw on how a fuge can be set up in a sump. Intake>Fuge>Return, Intake>Return<Fuge. Mine is set up the 2nd way with the return section in the middle. I have the drain from the tank splitting into two lines, one feeds the main intake with most of the flow coming out of the tank, the other feeds the fuge at a much slower flow rate. Both the main intake and the fuge flow into the center chamber which is the return section. I stole my idea from Melev's website. This is the sump/fuge I copied from, http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/g/sump_model_g.html

This is his link for how sumps work. http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

The only thing I could suggest is go as big as you can. Mine is a 30 gal. I had to remove the top center brace on the stand to get it in (make sure to put this back! haha). I saved a few inches of room under the stand for anything I may want to add on down the road like a UV sterilizer. I wish I had more room for a larger sump and a larger fuge.

Edited: BTW, I worked out my plumbing with Ryan @ Country living. It was nice to have someone who understands reef tanks who also works in a store that sells hardware. We were able to go over the plumbing setup, and then pick out the parts in his store that I needed.

 

[Tom&Ben]

That's an awesome site!
Lots of great ideas.

 

[Ken668]

Dave, my setup actually only has one return pump. The other is to push the skimmer. It's an AquaC EV-120. Pretty compact unit, but has performed for me from day one. The diagram just looks complicated. I actually designed it so a change in water level wouldn't effect the performance of the skimmer. Plus it's very quiet.

 

[archer8681]

Ah, my bad. I just saw 4 chambers and 2 pumps. sorry

Doing it like that, does the water overflow from chamber 1 to chamber 2? Or does it only enter chamber 2 after running through the skimmer? I guess if the pump for the skimmer matches the flow from the tank the water would not cascade over the 1st partition.

 

[archer8681]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8908778#post8908778 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tom&Ben
That's an awesome site!
Lots of great ideas.

That whole website is amazing! Tons of great information. Mark is also very active on RC, and had been very helpful to me as my tank has progressed.

 

[sbertomen]

Thank you guys - I think I finally got it with Ken's diagram. The water from the refugium comes from the skimmer then overflows into the return part. I keep reading Melev's but I think I just caught on to the overflow from one chamber to another concept.

Thanks Gary - every time I go to that video website I am checking out Carls tank tour. Aquascaping is so much more fun then the plumbing part!

Now I am rewatching that sump video!

sara