Building a sump/refgium ?'s Diagram included

[d00kie]

Hello all, i am finally diving into building a sump and refugium combo. I have a HOB refgium right now but it is kind of unsightly. Please look at my attached diagram. I think this will work but i am not sure how exactly water will flow. Will my 14" sections fill up before the 7" protein skimmer section does? I have the protein skimmer section so low because i believe 5-7" is the proper water height for a euroreef cs80 skimmer. Any help out there? I am trying to do this right. I will be using a 700gph Lifereef overflow, a mag 9.5 return pump and a 29 gallon sump/fuge. My display tank is 75 gallons. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[pfitz44]

The water will not stay at 7" in your first compartment. It will rise to 14"

 

[d00kie]

Do i need to build a stand for the protein skimmer to sit on if i want the proper water height? Or is there another configuration i could use to make this work.

 

[pfitz44]

You could build a stand, but what ive seen most people do is put the skimmer before thr refuge, not in it

 

[d00kie]

The protein skimmer is before the fuge, the bubble baffeles are sepearting it. Optimal water level for the protein skimmer is 5-8" there has to be away from the rest of the sump/fuge water to be higher than this.

 

[trainfever]

I would lower your baffles because you are not leaving much rom for overflow. Thats one of the main reasons for having a sump. A place for water to flow in case of a power outage. Like was stated earlier, the first section will have the highest amount of water. The last section, the one on the right will have the lowest. The compartment holding the return pump always has the least amount of water.

 

[bawood]

In fact it you reversed your flow, you'd have a more accurate picture of what would happen.
Imagine the return pump on the left and start on the right.
You'll see that you only have a small amount of shut off flow in that small chamber where you now have your skimmer.
You could still have you skimmer there as the water should be low enough, except in a power down situation.
B

 

[d00kie]

Ok i changed the design, how does this look?

 

[pfitz44]

That could work... might be tough getting the flow to stabilize. But physicaly speeking, that will work
DOnt think u need that pipe coming from the tank to go to the PS either

 

[bawood]

He would need that pipe going to the power skimmer or no water would leave or enter than chamber. You need an input and an output for flow. If he stopped the input from the maintank there would be no reason for water to enter that chamber.

 

[pfitz44]

Im going to agree to disagree with you on that point...
But to satisy both of us....
Swithc the pump and the PS.

 

[bawood]

How would new water get into the skimmer chamber the way it is setup? Come up the bubble trap?
If he did switch the two, then you'd be correct, there would be no need for the second feed.
Oh and the water level in your pump chamber would likely be a little lower than drawn, but that would be the only chamber that would see fluctuating water levels due to it being the pick up point so you could have it any level you want as long as it doesn't run itself dry and as long as you aren't too deep for your skimmer because the skimmer chamber will always be at 'least' as deep as the pump chamber

 

[pfitz44]

Let me revise my last statement....
As long as there was another pump or PH powering the PS (Thats whatim use to seeing... ) it would flow. I think you would agree with me on that. If there was no pump, then the second inout is needed.

 

[chull13]

d00kies diagram is the way to go. It is the simplest way. Therefore you have unskimmed raw tank water flowing into the refugium and you can control the flow with the ball valve. Have the rest of the water flowing into the skimmer chamber and then the two will overflow to the middle and return to the tank. The key is to make sure that you have enough backwash room incase of power outage. Do you know how to calculate that?

 

[bawood]

Turn the power off...
if it overflows, you messed up....

 

[chull13]

Of course that is one way to do it

or you could do the math so you don't have to take the chance.

 

[bawood]

Puddles are fun!
Yeah, yeah the safe/smart route is a possibility too...

 

[d00kie]

I did the math, on another site there is a gallon calculator. for 75 gallons with an overflow that is 2" down i need like 3.87gallons left, there will be plenty of room in the 29 gallon tank. I will only be using around 15-18 gallons of it. But for fun how do i calculate it?

 

[arkangel]

I am doing a 90 gallon and also using a 29 gallon high refuge and could someone help me with the calculations on overflow protection ?

 

[chull13]

yeah, is your tank 48x18
Lets just ay that you are going to lose 1.5" of water from your display during power outage. LxWxH/231 gives you amount of gallons you will lose. So if your tank is indeed 48x18 then the math would be 48x18x1.5/231=5.61 gal of water you will lose.
Now lets say your sump is 30Lx12W. Now lets say that the water level in your sump when the tank is running is 10" from the top of the sump. That means that the water can raise 10" before overflowing. So 30x12x10/231=15.58 gal of water. That means that you have plenty of backwash space in case of power outage.
If you are building your own sump then you can play with the baffle heights to maximize the amount of volume in your sump. The water level will be the height of the lowest baffle. So if your sump is 15" tall and your baffle is 8" tall then your water level will be at 8" when the tank is running. Your water could rise 7" before overflow. (15-8)