Siliconing my sump/fuge together tonight - but having second thoughts

So I am building this exact sup/refugium design:

20 Gallon DIY Sump Refugium (Part 4 - It's Finished!!).mov - YouTube

Everything is fabricated, and I siliconed in the wall between the skimmer and the fuge. But now as I look at the wall between the fuge and the return, I'm concerned it won't trap bubbles adequately. I will be running it on a 72 gallon bow front with megaflow overflow (600gph) which I am slightly overdriving with a mag 9.5. Lifereef VS2 24 skimmer.

What do you think? give up some of the room in the fuge to do a 3 wall bubble trap? I already machined the wall with the slots neart the top - so I intend to use that regardless for the 1st wall (between the fuge and return).

Working on it tonight - any opinions are appreciated!

 

Watched the vid. and the design seems fine to me. You should be ok on trapping bubbles. I know others will chime in!

 

So just a quick update - sump is up and running. It was an incredibly involved job getting it together, drilled, and especially under my established tank when I had to cut out the center board. Long story, but its in there and working great with a couple of exceptions.

First - my return section is very small, and I planned it that way to give myself extra room in the fuge. I knew I was going to use an ATO so I was ok with a small return. However I did misjudge how quickly my system evaporates - and in hindsight I should have sacrificed a little fuge room for a bit more return area just to be on the safe side. Not a huge deal as long as the ATO keeps working.

Second - I am getting a few microbubbles out of the return if I don't use some filter sponge in the bubble trap. I wanted to avoid the sponge so I could get pods moving through the return to the dt, but my plan now is to allow a little room on the ends of the sponge so some can get through. Should work...

Also purchased a reef octopus 1000sss and a reefkeeper lite with float switch and a BRS top off pump. System is rocking now - mix saltwater in the basement in a tub which is fed off an ro/di and a float valve. Then when the reefkeeper calls for water (via the switch in my sump) it pumps up the premixed saltwater from the basement. Working perfectly - but might set up a timer to ensure it never runs too long if the float switch fails.

The 1000sss is pulling thick gunk out after 4 days running - have it running very dry so it wont overflow while away on vacation.

So fairly happy with the new setup. Keeping my fingers crossed everything keeps running smoothly. I do have some complaints about digital aquatics which I will post in a separate thread.

 

Oh and typically the tub in the basement will just have freshwater in it - just happens to be mixed with salt currently. I can easily switch between two tubs if needed.

 

Sounds like a killer setup man! congratz. I just put baffles in a a 20L and just went with a single bubble trap with no refugium. I am running bio-pellets and they will out compete any chaeto. But like you mentioned, a friend of mine offered the advice to go big on the return area. At first I didnt think it would matter, but when you consider evaporation and bubbles, it makes sense.