DIY Kit design

I'm looking at buying a custom sump/fuge kit from happycorals.com, but I wanted to run the idea by 3reef first. Since the last time I designed a sump/fuge was 5 years ago.



Am I wasting my time and money on the bubble trap from the intake, or should a roughly 12" high acrylic be enough of a bubble tower?

Also, the refugium will have it's own intake with a flow controller.

EDIT: Saw on another thread that the feed for the fuge should come from a "T" off the return. I will deploy this idea.

 

Looks good guy. The traps are good because you can eliminate almost all the bubbles without using any type of sponges.

I concur to feed the fuge off the return! Folks drive home the point about getting the dirtiest water possible (ie straight from the tank) into the fuge. I agree, just don't try to get it there using any of the display drains!

I would just use the return to supply the fuge.
If you really, really want the display water, you can drop a small pump in the intake area and run a hose to the fuge...

I do like the design of the fuge on one end, the intake on the other and the return in the middle for a long layout like you have.

 

Thanks for the input, FB.

Also, I've read that it may be good to cut slits in the refugium wall to keep rogue cheato from getting into the return pump. I'll probably deploy that idea as well.

 

Million ways to do a custom sump/fuge.

Yours looks good, similar to mine.

I have a standard 120 gallon glass sump. (half my DT)

IMO the fuge section should be very low flow through it.

Ill explain how I did mine and you can think about yours.

Mine has essentially 3 chambers.
Chamber 1: water "in" from dual 1.5" returns with 7" filter socks.

Next weirs/baffles/bubble traps to...

Chamber 2: Skimmer/ pumps (MAIN CHAIMBER)
From here I run all my equipment
SRO skimmer
pump to my chiller
pump to media reactors
pump to ATS
return pump to DT (mag 1800, more than 3x per hr after head loss).

Chamber 3 (REFUGIUM)
My refugium is 1/3 sump volume (40 gallons)
I chose to FEED my refugium, low flow, from one pump actually taps off my cliller pump.

Heres the tricky part.. I made this partition wall put of acrylic with teeth. (exactly like a DT's overflow box) The low flow and "teeth" prevent macro algae and other crap from flowing into the return pump section. Water is pushed into the refugium and overflows back in to the middle chamber over the teeth. Also, its easy to drill. I drilled for a bulkhead to the "inlet" from my chiller line and I drilled for my ATO that is gravity fed to a float valve to the middle chamber.

Now, is this the "best" way? Its kinda backward in a way, but i didn't want a ton of water fed through it. This is why i did mine this way. Its low flow I can put sea horses in there and pipe fish no problem.

Does it need "dirty DT" plumbed directly to it.. I don't know, I doubt it. Will it really make a huge difference?

Again, this is how I did mine. Everyone has their own way. Research and come up with your own version. Maybe you will "revolutionize" how sumps/refugiums are built in the future.

I can send you pics if you want.

 

I have my layout exactly like yours and also feed my fuge with a pump from the return section. I don't want all the detritus coming from the DT to foul up my fuge, so I use return water that has been through filter socks and a skimmer. I just drop a few NLS pellets in the fuge a couple days a week to "feed" it. My pod population is great.

Regarding rogue macro algae, this is what I did. I bought a piece of acrylic from Home Depot and cut it the full width of my fuge. I then drilled many 1/4" holes in it below the water level. I put it in the fuge section and wedged it into the fuge sand bed and the tank sides. Now, it acts as a divider between my chaeto and fuge rock, acts as a flow distributor to make sure I get even flow through the fuge rock, and keeps my chaeto out of my fuge rock and return section. Here's a quick pic.

 

I'd love to check out some photo's of your set-up since my design is still in work. It will help me out big time.

 

Here are some. I have the wireng all nasty looking so my wife doesnt notice i bought a new controller untill i can hide the head unit. Still cloudy from the algae bloom. Skimmer still on overdrive. Looks yellow from the CFL on the ATS.

 

more

 

Some cool ideas. I like the idea of fuge on end & just holes cut in acrylic to let water flow.

 

Just noticed these pics in here. Thanks for posting!