40gal Fuge Design Help w/ CAD PIC

[zanemoseley]

ok I'm trying to plan a refugium for my 75 gallon, I'm thinking of using a 40gal breeder tank for the fuge or a similar but taller 37 or 38 gallon, I have a CAD drawing attached of what I'm thinking about doing, Is 2 baffles good enough to not disturb the sand/macros, I'm planning on using a 300GPH overflow with a mag 5 at about 5' head pressure which is about 250gph so the overflow would keep up with that, Is 7" of water space enough for the macros enough to grow well or should I opt for a taller skinny tank, Is 3" of dead space good at the top of the fuge to allow for too much overflow leway

 

[blue dew]

Hi,
I just did something similar when upgrading from a 30 gallon to a 40 Breeder. I had a sump/fuge made out of a 29 gallon due to the height. I was originally going to use a 20 long, but was worried about possible overflow problems if I lost power to the return pump.
So far, everything is working great. The other things that I did different on my setup was to place a divider between the input section from the overflow and the fuge baffle. This was a glass divider from the top down, with an inch of egg crate at the bottom. I did this to reduce bubbles into the fuge. I also put another piece on the fuge exit side, about half way up from the bottom with a inch wide piece of egg crate horizontally mounted. This is so I can put some poly filter, carbon or whatever there prior to entering the return area where I'm using a MAG 7 to send the water back up to the tank.
Finally, I left about 6 inches of space at the top of the tank for overflow, which equated to around 7 1/2 gallons. I'm at work right now, but will try to post a pic this evening when I get home. Hope this made sense and helps you out.
Dew

 

[zanemoseley]

well i'm having a hard time picturing your setup but maybe the pic will help, if I left 3" of space at the top of the fuge that would allow about 7.5 gallons of space for overflow during a power outage, will the 7" of water above the DSB be enough room for the macros to grow? Also is 6" good enough for a DSB or should I go with more

 

[blue dew]

Heres a drawing I made of my basic design. I'm running about 4-6 inches of sand in mine, with some live rock chunks, caulpera as my macro algae and 2 small mangroves. The total height of the 29 gallon was 18" (I believe), and my baffles for the fuge area are 12".
Not the best drawing, first time working with paint, so thats what took so long. I'll get a actual picture out this evening.
Dew

 

[blue dew]

Zanemoseley,
I posted a couple pics of my Sump/Fuge in the Equipment & DIY forum
Dew

 

[zippy]

You also need to take into consideration how high the water is in the main tank. If water overflows only 1/2 inch from the top when the pump goes off you will need far less available volume in the fuge than if your tank drains down 2 inches.

 

[zanemoseley]

will my design allow pods to be carried back into the main display via the mag5? if not how do you guys get the pods into the display for mandrins?