asimple question

hi all,

just a thread to help me out on something that i cant seem to find much help on or quite fully understand. all i do understand is the more litres/gallons the better;D

im now thinking of biting the bullet and buying a new 4/5 foot aquarium c/w sump,cabinet etc.(they have some at my lfs for circa £500-£600

however i have recently been looking at refugiums (to add a little more water)and wonder what way to go/is practical and in truth the most simplistic.. i have never seen one before in action so im still on the fence about it.any advice very much appreciated.

i was thinking of adding the refuge seperately and before the sump. but i have also been thinking of getting a bigger sump and say "incorporating" the fuge in that,say after the skimmer etc...is that a wise thing to do and is it more/less beneficial to do it that way.

also if i was to have it seperate can you split the inlet pipe into two(like a y junction) so it would feed both the sump and fuge(as i guess otherwise i would need an extra hole in the tank and they dont come with that!!lol)

any advice would be very much appreciated because i really dont know which way is best.(all i want is more,lol). i would ideally love to have a diagram of this kind of set up but cant seem to find anything. if anyone knows where i could find one please please let me know and i will send some love!!!!lol. many thanks hope it all makes sense...

 

I would go with a larger sump and integrate the fuge into it. I have had a few setups where I have used a seperate fuge, in the end I have alwase ended up designing and building custom sump/fuge system.

As far as design goes you can be very creative, check out my link below. I would however stay simple, unless you are comfortable doing a lot of plexi work. Using a T-adapter to direct flow into speperate chambers of your sump is the most common solution, and works great.

Also check out the "Refugium" forum, tons of great designs there!

 

I've been hearing that fuge in sump isn't the best idea because the flow needs to be slower through the fuge.

:-\

 

That is why you T the in-flow into seperate chambers or use some other internal water deversion design in the system, that way you have complete control over the flow rate into your fuge chamber.

 

makes sense. Didn't think of dropping a wall and just dividing it. But then again I'm still on the small scale (50 gallon tank with 30 gallon sump).

I bought a HOB fuge about a month ago tho. No complaints so far.

 

WOW, thanks for the link/advice there pd, good things heading your way. thats one envious tank set up you got there but well worth the hard work...anyway,

im going to look at that 5ft tank i mentioned earlier a little later on today. i cant remember the size of the sump that comes with it but what size should i be looking for? 4ft? maybe if its only say 3ft i can leave it behind and get a discount,lol...;D

one last question though that maybe answered in a minute when i go and look at the refugium forum pages, is there a logical way to work out the size of a sump/refuge in relation to the main tank or is it literally a case of the bigger the better?

thanks again for the advice and thats one pretty awesome yellow head jawfish you got there.

 

I would use the largest sump you can fit under the tank if thats what your restricted to.

I personally over build/over size my sump/fuges... I just designed a new sump fuge for a 50g tank, the fuge itself is 30g -- this is way oversized, LOL... but it is oversized by design. First of all I don't have it under the tank, so I am not restricted by space. The oversized fuge chamber allows me to have a greater total flow without causing turbulance in the system. With this design in mind I do not T the inflow, so all water passes thought the fuge and into the sump chamber though a single custom designed devider wall to minimize micro-bubble from the overflow.

Expermint with the design... building these systems is way fun ;D

PS... I am currently in Maui, if you would like I'll post some pics of this design when I return home.

 

;Dok that would be cool if you could put some pics up, always worth a look, if you dont mind sharing that is,lol. seriously though,thanks for your advice on this subject though fella, its well appreciated.;D