Sump/Fuge Questions

Okay I have been thinking of doing this and would like some feedback or advice and I haven't been able to find much on this believe it or not. I want to make a sump/refuge for my 75g. I want to use a rubbermaid storage box about 15 to 20 g and inside the big one I want to put a smaller one that will be the fuge. I would drill or cut holes in the ends of the smaller one for water flow through the fuge. One end would contain the skimmer and inflow the other end would be the pump and heater etc. I would need to have an outside overflow as my tank is not drilled. I would try for a 600 gph overflow with a 1" drain. Is this sufficient? also I would have a return pump rated at 850gph with a ball valve on the return with a 1" return. Am I on the right track here or am I lunched?

 

It is better to get an overflow that is rated higher or the same as the gph of your pump.
This way you never have to throttle back on your pump or worry about overflowing your tank. Other than that I don't see anything wrong with your setup.
Jim

 

Your 850gph pump may be ok to use. You have to figure out how much head pressure the pump has to pump against and what gph your pump is rated at the head pressure. For example, my overflow is rated at 800gph and I use a pump rated at 880gph at 1' HP and 650gph at 4' HP which is about what it has to pump against to return the water to my tank from the sump. Remember that any 90 degree bend in the return line counts as 1' HP.

 

Thanks for the input. The idea of the tub inside a tube is to reduce the flow through the fuge. I was thinking that you would need a higher rated return pump because of the head pressure. Is this not right? What are good pumps for return pumps? Can you use flex hose for return? if I had 4ft distance from return to tank with flex hose you wouldn't have any 90 degree bends would I still need to add to it?

 

I run exactly what your talking about. I use a 50 sump under my 265 with a 10 gallon rubbermaid tub hanging in it. I highly reccomend using a mag drive pump. There a real good pump when it comes to head pressure. I run the mag 2400, and i have it hard piped back to the aquarium using 2 90 degree fittings to get it back up to the aquarium top. I use two twin tube Pro clear aquatics overflows, 1200 gph each, and i have great flow.