diy sump with refugem, help?

i posted a thread under filtration and no one got back to me so i figured id try it here.

i am planning on building a sump with a refugem in it and have a basic sketch of how i plan on setting it up although im not sure what ill use yet (either a big tupperware or small old tank. id like to hear any improvements that you guys may want to give, thoughts, opinionns, etc. keep in mind that i am a full time college student so not really on the cash flow right now so dont give big giant expensive reccomendations lol







not everything is sized up and symetrical yet, just a rough sketch....looking for opinions and ideas to improve this design let me know your input.

this will also have an hang on overflow rather than be drilled.

 

also what is a good method for a nozzle to return the water to the tank?

 

....i figured id try here for some help but so far have found none.....:-/

 

It will work the way you've designed it but if it were mine I would not have the filter floss, bio balls or any other media in the intake area. The reason being that 1. IMO filter socks, flosses and sponges trap and steal suspended food that corals need and use. 2. unless you are completely dedicated to maintenance they will trap detritus and become a nitrate factory.

I would also swap the fuge area with the return pump area and only have one bubble trap. You are defeating the purpose of your fuge by sending it skimmed water. To do this you'll need to split the drain line with a tee.

 

so if you swap the fuge with the return and took off on of the bubble traps from each it seems like a good concept? for now itll just be a FOWLR until i save some funds and also stabalize the tank a bit but the idea of the filter floss was to catch any large particles while the system is running and have something you can take out and occasionally rinse and eventually replace...would it make a difference in the nitrates if the floss was say rinsed every week or biweekly or something along those lines or would you reccomend maybe a seperate mechanical filter attached to the sump or tank to catch any large particles of detritus etc?

thank you for your help, this would be my first reef tank and the first sump i have so this is very helpful

 

I think this is what you mean

Here's mine

 

What Reefmonkey said...

Use link248's sump/fuge as an idea for yours. Now, if you have the space and are already going to be splitting the overflow into two locations or will be using two different overflow holes; you could also do a seperate tank for the fuge and put a gate valve or ball valve on the line to slow the flow in the refuge down (I recommend this even if you have the fuge in the sump). This slow will allows the water to contact the DSB and the Macros for a longer time filter the water more. To see an example of this look at the link in my signature I have a design of the sump and refuge I am building.

 

Thanks for the help guys, I probably don't have room for two separate tanks but maybe I'll put a piece of glass 3/4 of the height of the tank and let it over flow into a bubble trap in the return and implement a split in the pvc from the over flow

 

Not two tanks.

If I had paint or something on this computer I'd draw it out.

It would go like this:

3 compartments

1st- Intake and skimmer ->bubble trap -> return <-baffle <-fuge

The drain line would tee and be controlled with a valve giving more water to the Intake and skimmer with slower flow to the fuge area.

 

I think that they are talking about a design similar to mine.