My sump and fuge. pics

SO here are a few pictures of my Sump and Fuge. The input drain off the main tank is 1/2 inch. the output to the sump is 1.5" . My question is How should I setup the Fuge. egg crate ect. I'm thinking about putting a pvc pipe split in half maybe 13 inch long that way it will drain off the top more. Thoughts on this? I also I have very large Fuge so please help me fill it with useful stuff. like put so much egg crate here for chaeto.




Thanks
jacob

 

If i were you i would divide the tank into 3 main sections
section 1= skimmer, heater, carbon ect
section 2= lr, cheato, and other macro algeas of you choice
section 3= refugium (or more lr) and some mangrooves

i hope this helped

 

I'm using my sump for that stuff
List for area one . The tank to the right is my sump. The one to the left is my fuge.

 

Exact dimensions would help. I'm confused? Break it down for us. This I do know. With a sump/refugium you have to filter the bubbles quickly. I use a sheet of eggcrate standing up that's a half inch higher than the overflow to keep the cheato inside the fuge. I know you have to have a slow flow through the fuge or it defeats itself.

 

I will have a T off the main drain from the tank, from that it will flow into the refugium and to the sump. The flow to the refugium will have a ball valve so I can control the flow. here are the details of my Refugium and sump.

Refugium.
18L x 13.5W x 20H
Plans for bulkheads
Small .5 inch bulkhead in real right corner (see pic)
output opposite corner on 13.5 side 1.5" (see pic)

Sump.

22.5L X 14W x 13H

bulkheads
1" for tank drain
1.5" for fuge drain

Ok now for the questions

Drain from tank to refugium

I will have a T off the main drain with a ball valve so i can make the slow in the fuge very slow.


Drain from Refugium to Sump

a hole cut as high as possible in the fuge and have it fall into the sump just above water level

Thinking about putting a 12inch pvc pipe split into the fuge to drain more off the top, the speed of the drain will still be very slow. in the picture pay no mind that the drain from the fuge is high, i just didn't put the time into the drawing. hope this helps.

 

From what I see and I could be wrong but is the tank going to drain into the fuge? If so that would be too disruptive I would think for the refugium which shouldn't have forced waterflow or extremely too many bubbles. I have a baffle that seperates the overflow from the refugium and it's filled with bio-balls strictly to stop the bubbles. Notice in the last picture, on the right side next to the bio-balls is barely any bubbles. It would be out of control without them. Now I don't know what kind of return overflow your going to have, don't know if your tank is drilled or is it a siphon? I'm just curious..
As far as the refugium goes, this is where a 4" to 6" deep sand bed would be good with a few live rocks (the uglier of the bunch) and some cheato also figure some eggcrate to keep the cheato in the refugium.

 

I have a 90 gallon tank, with built in over flow...95% of the overflow will go into the sump. only 5% making VERY low flow go into the fuge. the only reason i have a 1.5 inch drain is to help make sure it doesn't get clogged. I have seen many setups like this...I really just want to make sure I put the right stuff in the fuge..IE eggcrate, maybe the split pvc pipe. What other macroalgaes i should have...I have a lot of room to work with so i want to make sure i do it right.

 

Well this setup is unique. I'm not familar with this but it looks interesting. Let me know how it works for you. The 5% thing is puzzling in how it can be determined? The concept is good in that you do have a large fuge. I would like to see the finished product in operation with some pics. I run my fuge light on the same timer with the moonlights. This I heard was a good idea.

 

THe 5% is a guess. I did this because of the room I had to work with, my stand has a very small door and the only way into the stand is the door. So to get the most out of my space I had two custom tanks made. Now i'm using about 90% of the space i have.