New to hobby, questions that I have.

You're welcome.

Yes, slower flow in the refuge and allow most of the overflow pressure go into the skimmer chamber.

I would suggest putting a bubble trap in your sump as well, between the return section and your protein skimmer in order to prevent micro bubbles from entering the display and ruining the view. This is made of three panes of glass instead of just one. Rather than just going over the glass to the next section...the water goes over, under the middle pane, and back over the third piece of glass to the next chamber. Bubbles have trouble passing over and cannot make it through.

 

My 2-cents on PVC and flex ;D Flex is more forgiving on locating connections but has a greater risk of coming loose and the ridges inside the flex can affect the flow as much as a 90 in PVC. Once connected PVC will last forever - - even if you want to take it apart!! :-/ I use a combination with a short flex at one of the connections and use TWO clamps to keep it on. Nothing like getting up in the morning and sloshing through wet carpet in the display room.

 

I have an easier fix for those micro bubbles. Get a block of semi-hard foam such as used in rain gutters to keep the leaves out. Cut a hole a bit smaller than the return line from the skimmer 2/3 through the block. Put the block and tube in the sump and no more bubbles

 

My Coralife skimmer had this on the output line and I still had microbubbbles in the display. It didn't hurt anything, but it was annoying. If you don't mind the bubble then I guess that' OK too.

 

WOW! I keep mine on full blast and not a single bubble!

 

Are you using the fish to cycle the tank? I saw you still got some brown on the sand... :|

 

I appears to be cyano bacteria or diatoms, which neither is usually seen until late in the cycle (or after). The tank is cycled, correct? Or are you going to empty it and start over (you said you wanted to drill the glass)?

 

Ya the tank has been cycled nearly two months I kindof did the newbies mistake of rushing into everything:-[ but I am planning on keeping as much water as possible from this tank and keeping my LR and fish at my LFS( he said he would hold onto them while I prepare my tank) while my main is being drilled. The worst problem has to be the waiting of getting items shipped though , bought a new tunze powerhead on the 7th still no show.

 

Sounds like you have done your homework well and have a good plan. I had a Rena xp3 on my thank when i first started it up. I was running a single pad filter at first to get rid of the cloudiness from the new sand. After that i was running carbon only. I finally decided that things were just fine without it after my refugium was up and running. I now have a very nice xp3 for sale. To me the benefit was low for all the extra maintenance, but that was just me and my system. It really depends on what you end up with in your system i would think. Looks like a nice, well thought out build. Look forward to watching your progress!

 

That's good to hear. I'm sure it will turn out pretty nice.