100gal rubbermaid trough as refugium or sump??

[foxthorn]

After screwing around with an in stand sump/refugium design for a few weeks I decided I’m just going to move the whole thing downstairs directly below the 90 AGA main tank.
Now… I’m thinking about getting a 100 gal Rubbermaid feed trough and I already have an old 30 gal glass tank sitting around.
So… Do I use the 100 gal trough as the refuge or the sump? I’m thinking that the 30 glass tank would be easy to glue in some baffles and plenty of room for my skimmer and would make an okay sump. This would leave the 100 for a very cool refugium. Yes!
But… what bothers me is that I’d love to have that extra 100 gallons more ‘in-play’ as part of the main turnover flow for my display tank. By having it sitting as a slow flow refug, the water won’t get ‘used’ as often in the turnovers. Plus, as Rubbermaid troughs are not clear you wouldn’t really be able to see all the action inside the fuge very well anyway.
Hmmm… comments?

 

[broomer5]

If I had room downstairs - I would skip the 30 gallon sump and do two HUGE rubbermaids. You could mount them end to end, or even stack them ( if you build a strong stand to hold the weight of the top fuge )
Plus the 30 may not allow enough "draindown" from the display tank and piping when the power goes off. Depends on your pipe run distances and pipe diameters.
In any event - it sounds pretty cool - and we'd love to see pics as you do this
How about the 100 gallon refugium and a 50 gallon rubbermaid sump ?

 

[bang guy]

If those are the choices I would use the 100 gal as the refugium and run ALL the water through it. Why does it need to be low flow? Then have the 100gal drain into the 30 (sump) to be pumped back upstairs. You won't need any baffles in the 30.

 

[foxthorn]

Well to tell you the truth I'm not 100% sure why slow flow is needed -- from research on this board I keep seeing how everyone is designing their Fuge with a ball valve off of the overflow or return line - with mention of how to use this to slow down the water running through the Fuge. I thought this was because a less turbulent environment was needed for the Macro algae and pods to flourish.
Here's some quotes that I found in some searches. I couldn't find any that actually said a fast flow was acceptable. BUT I do understand that there are a LOT of ways to do this and no one way is right ... I'm still in research mode on the fuge so any pointers you can give will be appreciated.
Mr. Salty:
"700gph is WAAAY too much flow for an efective refugium...It really needs to be less than 100.So that powerhead idea is also a bit high."
"#1,the flow rate will be way to fast.A good refugium has a flow rate of below 75GPH"
Bang Guy:
"2X - 4X water turnover rate works very well"
Alti:
"some people do use the sump as a refuge, but IMO its not the right place for it. you need to have a slow flow rate to allow the macro algea to absorb the excess nutrients"
fishfood:
"The concept was to have a low flow through a fuge. Just recently Bang Guy posted some, non scientific, tests on flow rate in a fuge. (I think it was Guy) Anyway the results were that his caulerpa grew faster up to a certain amount of flow, thus probably taking out more nutrients."
Jumpfrog:
"Normally a fuge has a fairly slow water flow to allow maximum nutrient absorbtion and not disturb the DSB too much."
Etc...

 

[richard rendos]

I would think flow rate through your refugium would be directly related to the size of the refugium. With the size fuge you are talking about building, I think you could get a lot higher flow rate safely.

 

[bang guy]

I guess Richard enumerated my thought better. If you've got 1000gph going through your 100 gal. refugium that's fine. If you've got 1000gph going through a 30 gal refugium that's a bit too turbulent

 

[foxthorn]

Thanks guys!! I see what you mean now.
So then... Looks like I'll have my overflow water go directly to the refuge (using a bucket to difuse the bubbles/turbulance) then I'll need a bulkhead high on one of the walls of the 100 that will have a strainer and then elbow out to my 30 gal wich is where the skimmer and heater will sit. The 30 will have a bulkhead to an external pump to push the water back to my 90.
Questons:
1. So what do I do to avoid having my pods skimmed? I guess baffle the 30 and put the fuge water in closer to the pump.??
2. How big a bulkhead and how many on the trough? I'm thinking one to fit a 2 inch PVC.??
3. I should use a strainer on the bulkheads, right?
I know you're going to ask what I'm expecting for a GPH - I've got an AGA RR... so I'm thinking the best I can do with their stock overflow is 700. ???