Newbie looking for some sump design help!

This has alot of info on sumps and designs that may help.
Melevsreef.com | Acrylic Sumps & Refugiums

 

Well again, plenty of ways to do it, but you need to understand "why" you are doing it. I don't have one single bubble in my tank. My bubble traps work just fine.

If all you want is algea to grow and suck up nitrates and PO4, then it does not matter where you do it and you don't need a fuge. A fuge is a place for microfauna. They need substrate. You don't need a sand bed, but a deep sand bed has many benefits. So you build a fuge to grow microfauna and run a DSB for nitrate reduction and microfauna ecosystem to supply a food source for corals.

Now anyone can throw cheato in a skimmer section and it will grow. Or just make a turf scrubber. If you want all the benefits a fuge has to offer, then you need slow flow. 600gph through a small flow is too much. The point is for water and waste to go to the fuge. Poop feeds the critters. Waste goes in the sand bed and is reduced to nitrates. Those nitrates are sucked up by the algae and then you export them. High flow just dumps waste and sweeps out nitrates.

Some say 10x fuge capacity, some say less. My fuge is fifteen actuall gallons. I probably have 100-120 gph. If I put my entire sump flow through my fuge, not real sure what the point would be. JMHO

 

So here is what I'm thinking about doing. What do you all think? I also thought maybe putting in like a filter sock or something where the water enters the sump.

What I need help w/ next is how big to make each section and how tall to make each of them and then what should I put into my fuge? All I want is to have a nice clear looking display tank so I figure lets do it right the first time around.

Thanks everyone for all your help and sorry about the picture. Best program I was able to find to make it.