Sumps are confusing!

Ok,
I have an 85 gallon tank and am going to build my own sump. I have a few questions. Is there any particualr order that things need to go in? For example can I have the water flow in this order:

Water Leaves main tank
Trickle we/dry filter
Protien skimmer
Canister filter
Refugeeum
Water back to main tank.

My second question is this. Can I have the canister filter drawing water out of the refugeum in the sump. Finally, Where do I need to put baffles and what is their purpose?

Thanks everyone for your help. I am really appreciate it!!!!
J

With a sump you wouldn't need a canister filter. Those are not preferred anyway. Your refugium would usually be feed off a T from the overflow line feeding the sump. I suppose you could incorporate the canister filter in there somewhere, but I would do away with it all together. May be use it to run carbon as needed.

+1 dcan....saltwater hobbyists tend to stay away from canister filters. Mine is set up like this:

Main tank, overflows down to the sump, but it's split before hitting the sump -- 80% of the water goes into my skimmer area on the left, and 20% goes into my refugium area on the right....it is controlled by a ball valve. The skimmer pours half the water in its own compartment which overflows through 3 staggered baffles into the middle return area, and the other half of the skimmed water goes into my refugium as well, which overflows through 1 baffle w/ teeth on top, into the return area. Then goes back into the main tank. I made a video when I first started the hobby:


My sumps MUCH dirtier now with algael and stuff, and the chaeto in the refugium has since been trimmed and sold to my lfs. But it's worked very well for me.

The refugium is not necessary, but it helps with pod growth and maybe algae control in the main tank (I have little to no hair algae up there). Hope this helps.

sumps are actually very similar, and extremely effective.

don't do trickle filters or anything with bioballs. just my opinion.

Here's my sump. Water comes into the sump from the tank on the far right and the return is on the far left.



You can see some other pics of my setup on my build thread.
125 reef build...NOT The New Yankee Workshop

Wonton thanks for sharing that video.
ccCapt- great set-up. I wish I had a sump out in the open like that. I hate it in the cabinet below. Too hard to get to and work on stuff. Your set-up is ideal!

Wonton, great video and system but I think you may have grealty underestimated the ability of chaeto to export nutirents.

Always a good idea to let gravity return the the water down and let the pump push it up such that if the pump fails, nothing can overflow.

Yeah...that's my first sump attempt from when I first started in the hobby back in Oct. My 125g will have an above-tank fuge so as to get more pods in the tank and more direct way for the fuge'd water to enter the tank directly instead of it mixing w/ the skimmed water. But since my dt is a low stocked fowlr, I didn't see the need to redo the setup at that point. I'm saving that for the big tank

Tell u what, though...my nitrates are always 0ppm!!!

Thanks for the help everybody. I am little confused about running carbons through the canister filter, dcantucson. How does that work? So a protien skimmer and wet/dry are enough? Thanks for all your help! Great video Wontonflip!

Actually,the skimmer with 1 to 2 pounds of rock per gallon is enough.