refugium setup

[wingsrte]

I have recently set up a 125 to replace my 55 fish only and my 30 reef. I have two seperate overflows so I am using both my sumps one for each overflow. One sump I set up to handle my skimmer and I installed my UV steralizer on the return. I also have about 20lbs of live rock in the sump along with a heater.
The other sump I want to set up as a refugium. I am going to use the main chamber for the refugium itself and place either some river rock or live rock rubble in the flow thru between the chambers to prevent the sand and mud from getting into the secondary chamber. In the secondary chamber I am going to have the pump to get the water back into the main tank. In the main chamber I will place calupra and what ever else I can find along with some live rock. I am going to run the lights on an opposite cycle from the main tank to help keep the PH and Alk balanced.
I was wondering if anyone else had tried a set up like this. I was a little worried about waterflow through the system an I was considering drilling some holes in the top of the wall seperating the chambers to help prevent overflow problems.
Looking for some advise and some input.
Thanks.

 

[oceanjumper]

Sounds sweet, an awful lot of extra gallons! You might want to be careful with the flow through the refuge if it gets it input directly from one of the overflows. It might, it might not be too strong.
Also realize that both sumps need to have a lot of "head space". If you let the refuge overflow in your sump, you only have to worry about headspace in the sump.

 

[broomer5]

Having two separate overflows is nice.
Having them each drain to two separate sumps each with it's own return pump is not so nice.
Can it work - yeah.
Are you asking for trouble - yeah.
The two sumps "should" in my opinion, be tied together to share common water level. Bulkheads and piece of pipe connecting them would be ideal - if possible.
If you can raise one - and have it spill over to the other - then only use ONE larger return pump - will eliminate the "dual" levels becoming out of synch.
Both pumps can not be counted on to deliver "equal" volumes of water up to the display tank for any given period of time.
Even 2 identical pumps running - can be off by a small fraction.
This small fraction over TIME can cause one sump to be at a different operating level than the other one.
If I had this set up - and was there everyday to "correct" the offset - that's okay.
But as I was away for a day or two - I'd always be wondering if the one sump is at the same level as the other.
If for some reason - one of your return pump fails - and the other one keeps on pumping - what do you think would happen ???
If a power outage occurs - and only one of the return pumps kicks on - yikes !
The dual overflows don't know any better, not do they know if one pump or both pumps are working.
They will just continue to dump water into both sumps, at a much reduced rate - but they don't care either.
Overflows are very dumb.
Anyway I look at it - I get a bad feeling.
Two sumps not connected sharing water - It's just not a good thing when you "think" about the "what-ifs"
The "what-if-this-happens" will get you everytime .... when they become the "It-did-happen"
Chances are - someday - one of the pumps may fail.
Chanse are even greater - that no matter how you plumb everything up, and even if you use two identical pumps ...... that there will always be an offest or error between the two feed rates to the display tank.
The overflows don't care.
The sump levels WILL not match.
One WILL become higher and higher.
The other WILL become lower and lower.
I'm getting uncomfortable thinking about what would happen to your equipment, your tank creatures and your floors ...... as I type this.

 

[wingsrte]

Broomer,
Thanks for the input, I didnt think about what would happen if one pump failed. If I connected the two systems above the water line with say some 1" PVC do you think that would be enough to prevent a major overflow. I could also place some kind of container that the Sumps would sit in to accomodate any water that could spill out if I had a power failure. I have ball valves on each overflow so I can shut off the water coming from the display tank if I needed to.
What do you think of my idea of using a sump for a refugium? I think I can regulate the amount of water flowing into the main chamber with the ball valve so that the water level doesnt get to high or low. I am going to use a small powerhead to get the water back into the display tank so that I should have a nice slow water flow through the refugium. Is there anything else that I havent thought of in this plan?
Again thanks for you advice.