Need Help

I'm makeing a Sump/Refugium this is the idea i had was hopeing to get some feedback

 

looks good to me. you may want a bubble trap before the return though
are you planning on lighting over the sump? that would be a cool spot for some less than reef friendly critters you might decide you have to have

 

Welcome to 3reef!!!!

I would make the skimmer section larger. Eight inches will limit you on what skimmers you can use.

Jack

 

I wouldnt use the bio balls. I have a section that is filled with lr.

 

I agree, by the drawing your water level is going to be higher than the bio-balls. They don't do as much when submerged. I would instead use that space to make your skimmer section larger. I would also make the water overflow into the sand bed compartment instead of allowing it to pass through a hole. You don't want the water to have any way of flowing back from the sand compartment into the skimmer compartment. It would not be a problem during normal operation but during a power outage or if you need to unplug the return for some reason the back filling of the sump through the return line can cause some sand to flow back into the skimmer compartment.

 

It looks like the sand bed will be washed away into the skimmer section. I prefer having the refugium and skimmer sections on separate ends of the sump so I can control a slower flow through the refugium and a fast flow through the skimmer section. This way the macro algae in the refugium has more time to take out the nitrates.

An you shouldn't need the bioballs if you have enough sand and rock.

 

Thanks for the feedback i think i will take out the bio balls and not sure if i want to put the refug on one side and skimmer on the other yet. Would it mess out the flow in my DT or do i have all of my intake water go to the skimmer section and t off of one of the intake lines to feed the refugium? Oh i have a Kent marine nautilous skimmer. So if i did put the refugium on one side how big of a return section should i make and then i would have to account for power outages in this section mainly i think i could make a higher refugium wall giving me more gallons in that section.

 

I made the changes to the new design i think this is what you guys were talking about. I do have lights for the rufugium and i plan on putting live rock in the sump area maybe some in the return area. Oh and this is for a 210 gallon tank i have about 400lbs lr and i'm getting around 200lbs from a friend i just upgraded my lights to 1134 watts.

 

That looks much better. You might want to build in a bubble trap coming from the fuge into the return as the fall height is going to be higher from there than from the skimmer.

 

Ok cool i plan on making most of this tomorrow i already bought the supplys. i will check this forum in the morning to see ifi missed anything thanks for the help i will post pictures when i'm done.