Sump Design

[saltysteven]

I have been designing some new plans for my new sump and heres what ive come up with:


I like this simple common design. It allows the water to flow slowly through the refug by having the return in the middle.
I also added a third exit that enters into the return only when doing a water change.
The skimmer exit is closed and the return area exit is opened. I then empty the skimmer section of its water and fill that section back up with the new water. Im sure this will effect the skimmer for a little while but so does water changes anyway.
The middle return section can also be used as a frag area.
I will be adding black walls to separate the light from skimmer return and refug.

[saltysteven]

here are two more designs i came up with.
What do you guys think of them?

[kgross]

I like the plan in the top of the bottom picture. Only change I would do is have the skimmer feed into the fuge with 100% of the drain, then have fuge go into narrow line for coral frags. You don't need slow flow in your fuge, you actually want a pretty good clip of water to keep the algae moving, plus as large of an area as possible. Plus this will allow the fuge to work as the bubble trap, so you don't have to build a bubble trap at all. The narrow return section for the coral frags is great, since you don't have to add any extra flow to get good water movement.

Kim

[saltysteven]

i designed the refug not going intot he sump so the pods wouldnt get skimmed out by the skimmer. also i think with a DSB the slow moving water is best. For algae movement the water flowing into the refug will provide hopefully enough movement - if not id add a small powerhead.

[kgross]

I would not have the fuge flow into the skimmer, have the skimmer flow into the fuge so the pods will not get skimmed out as you said. DSB in fuges normally do not work very well. For a DSB to work well it need to get food and there is not a lot of food for the DSB critters in the fuge unless you directly feed it. now if you want a denitrate filter a DSB works well, but the bucket type actually works better than in the fuge.

Kim

[saltysteven]

right i guess i misunderstood you.
what is the bucket type?

[kgross]

Here is a link to info on the remote deep sand bed for denitrification.

http://www.linomareefs.com/topics/view/715

[saltysteven]

do you think the bucket is a better idea than a 5 inch sand bed in the refug?
30x18

[saltysteven]

do you think the bucket is a better idea than a 5 inch sand bed in the refug?
30x18

[kgross]

What do you want the DSB to do?

Kim

[saltysteven]

denitrification.
what else would a DSB do?
What does your refuge and sump look like?

[kgross]

A DSB can provide plankton.

I would do a bare bottom sump so you can clean up the detrius, and do a RDSB.

Which fuge and sump.

I have one system that has 2 55 gallon tanks for a sump, first sump has some live rock rubble in it and does bubble trap, second 55, has the return pump. Fuge is a 35 gallon hex that is plumbed into the system. Lots of algae and a little bit of rubble at the bottom.

Another system. Sump is 3 sections, first skimmer,, skimmer ouput flows into second chamber, full of chaeto, no sand, a couple peices of rubble but very little, from fuge it flows into return section. we clean out the detritus on a regular basis. DSB is in main tank for de nitrification. Another system.

First section of sump skimmer, second section fuge,at the end of the fuge is an eggcrate baffle to return pump to keep algae out of the return pump. Again, bare bottom so I can clean it out, and DSB is main display tank.

Last sump, skimmer section first, skimmer output into race way system that has coral frag growout, with small fuge at the end with eggcrate keeping algea out of the return pump.

kim

[saltysteven]

okay so hows this?
just trying to figure out whats the right thing to do and what in my design is wrong .
and thanks for the help so far!!
how about this one?

[saltysteven]

skimmer-cheato-dsb-return

[kgross]

That will work, you can drop the bubble trap after the skimmer it is not needed at all, the chaeto will work to trap bubbles so you can make the fuge a little bit bigger.

Kim

[saltysteven]

okay so it will work or its a good choice in sump design?
i could make a remote DSB bucket and make the refuge even bigger.
the skimmer section i know should be just as big as i need for the skimmer and tank exit -
i have a few units i can work with and many buckets.
i have a glasscages acrylic 48x18x17
i also have a glass 30 , 20 tall 20 long and 2x 10s gallon - wow i didnt realise i had that many well thats what i have to do a sump and refuge.
i have so many options i think its confusing me

[kgross]

That plan will work fine. I'm not sure if I would do the DSB in the sump, but that is up to you. If you dropped the DSB it would be very close to the same as many of the sumps that I have made... now I am not saying to drop the DSB, it is just that I have never put one in a sump to be honest, but then I like a sand bed in the display tank so that plus the algae in the fuge normally leaves me with a low nitrate level so no rdsb is needed.

I would suggest doing the remobe dsb bucket and then make the fuge larger. I know many people with rdsb change out the sand every year or so to remove detritus, and that is a lot easier in a bucket than in the sump.

kim

[saltysteven]

gotcha-
and does that mean a bare bottom refuge?

[kgross]

I do bare bottom fuges. You get detritus in the bottom of the fuge, and if you keep it bare bottom, you can siphon it to keep it clean.

Kim