Wanting to add a refugium!

T

tmy880

Guest
Any suggestions on how and where to put my refugium.
Size suggestions would be helpful and equipment would be helpful to know as well.
I currently run a 110 gallon tank with about the same lb's of live rock.
My sump is 24 gallons, but doesnt hold that much water so I am adding a baffle to gain volume in the sump.
Heres a pic of my tank from the back:

Any suggestions on how to set up my fuge and what equip I will need?
Do I just get a pump to pump the water out of my sump and into my fuge, and then one back from my fuge to my sump?
 
T

tmy880

Guest
Will the PVC u-tube still work if the Fuge sits higher than the sump.
I will probably make a stand so I can put the fuge over my pumps.
 
buckster71

buckster71

Member
I kind of built that same design as put up there. The problem I have is that you have a difficult time balancing flows, and as the water level in my sump drops, also drops output to the fuge, thus I loose suction on the pvc suction pipe and for some reason I don't believe that to be 100% constant either.
Better to use a bulkhead flow from the fuge to the return than a syphon tube. That way the water will naturally flow via gravity to your return instead of relying on a vaccum to be constant.
With that above design, now (through trial and error) have found I may need to put a float switch on my fuge in case somthing happens to the syphon to shut off the main pump (or start a backup pump)....or I'll have new sea water colored carpet installed in my family room!
Ah well, Edison found 1,000 ways not to invent the light bulb
 
buckster71

buckster71

Member
That means puting it over your pumps would be ideal.
Just put the pipes angled downward off your fuge to the return.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
yea, the utube ended up causing me nightmares, because i was afraid it would overflow. bulkhead would be better, but how to get anything in or out of under that tank is going to be a problem.
better off just redesigning a brand new sump/fuge tbh
 
buckster71

buckster71

Member
Originally Posted by tmy880
Will the PVC u-tube still work if the Fuge sits higher than the sump.
I will probably make a stand so I can put the fuge over my pumps.
Actually the syphon tube works like an overflow. The water level in the fuge has to be higher than the water level in your return sump.
 
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