Sump and refugium questions

[darren0311]

I am going to be taking my 55 gallon and making a nice display in my living room, I have always used canaster filters and i am going to build a sump and a refugium and put it underneath in the stand, my question is I will be using a 20 gallon long for the sump and a 10 gallon for the refugium, can someone guide me through building them, ie. what i am going to need for the refugium (what i should put in it) and as far as what type of pump i am going to need? my other concern is I have been hearing about power outages and tanks overflowing, what can I do to prevent this. any help would be great
thanks

 

[reefriyon]

Is your tank drilled for a Wet/Dry? if not do so! so much easier for everything and nicer because you dont see anything. if you dont want to drill it then look up DIY overflow and you will find out how to make one. if you drill it you buy the megaflow kit and your ready to go.
for the 20 gallon sump...do you have baffles or know how to build them? build the sump baffles a little less that half of the 20 Gallon. 2 or 3 is good. high baffle first then goes under and then over again with filter pads in between. fill the drain side with sump rock...cheap rock at lfs is good. then look into a protein skimmer if you ever decide to buy one...you have to make sure you have enough room on the return side of the sump to place a protein skimmer in it <if its a in sump only>. you will have a protein skimmer in the sump...a pump for the return into the tank and a pump into the refugium. lets start with the refugium...i bought a 5 1/2 gallon tank for mine and tried to drill it...didnt happen. so i bought a critter cage made out of plastic that you can buy at pet stores they usually say critter cage with blue pink green tops on them. i drilled a 3/4" hole in the top corner of mine, added a connector and piece of 3/4" tubing to drain into the sump...AKA Overflow. so i bought a small micro pump thats placed in my sump that feeds the refugium....little water movement in all. i bought a florescent light for the top and had some left over live rock that i put in and bought refugium mud and live sand and thats it. after that i bought some chaeto and im good to go. pretty simple...only thing is you have to raise the refugium above the sump for the overflow pipe to work...obviously. so my sump is pretty crowded right now with a skimmer, Pump for UV light, pump for return, and pump for refugium. works well for a 20 gallon tank sump and thats just my sump theres a whole lot more ideas and ways.
As far as power outages and overflowing a sump is a lets say reserve if the power goes out and overflows. it will drain no matter what (as long as hose isnt clogged). if power goes out the sump drains to the overflow set height and the return line if a check valve isnt in place. you have to mark your sump with a max line to know how much water you can put in without chance of overflowing in case of power outage. lets say its at 3/4 of the sump...power goes out....the overflow in the back of the tank will drain water equal to 1/4 of the sump so the sump is now full with power out. no overflowing at all.