Placement of return pump?!

[sparx22631]

Hey everyone quick ? i have a sump with refgium, my question is should i put the return pump in the refgium section or should i have it in were i put my protein skimmer? and why? thank you

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Can you describe the layout of your sump? Are there any baffles?

Most people keep the return pump in it's own, dedicated chamber. This is for a few reasons:

1) You don't want any bubbles, algae, or other foreign matter getting sucked into the pump.
2) The return pump's chamber will naturally have the lowest water line, and will be the chamber where fluctuation due to evaporation happens.

[sparx22631]

here it is my sump, i have the ref in the middle , and protein skimmer all the way to the right with the return pump in the same spot as the protein skimmer

[der_wille_zur_macht]

If it's working that way, by all means keep doing it - you're not risking any problems that wouldn't be obvious. In many cases, the reasons why the skimmer isn't in the return pump section are what I outlined above - skimmers tend to produce a lot of bubbles, and if it's in the return pump chamber, you're risking them getting pumped up to the display tank. Also, most skimmers hate changes in water depth - the return pump chamber will fluctuate with evaporation unless you have an automated topoff system.

[sparx22631]

so if you had the same setup where would you put the return pump at?

[roneil]

if your skimmer dose not release any bubbles , you can put them in the same compartment.