About setting up a Refugium

[phastroh]

Ok so here is the deal.

I purchased a 2.5 Aqueon Glass tank that I really wanted to use for my refugium section of my sump.

So I put an extended piece of PVC coming out of the Skimmer to reach the Refugium.

It has glass dividers I got extra but it fills in easy. Just wanted to keep the Chaeto out of the pump(even though some got by ughh)

I tried my smaller whisper pump and it wouldn't not pump fast enough even though it is rated at 200GPH and it was a short distance to the return pumps chamber.

I slapped in my Whisper 1200 and tried all the settings to slow it down but nothing seemed to work.

I understand how I regulate my return pump since it pumps more water than my skimmer can put out and it is easy to get it to be prefect. Also the fact the water level in the main tank has some play in it so that is just easy to do.

But with this small tank and it working based on the skimmer dumping and the whisper pump it was either too slow or too fast.

I could if I want to do some major plumbing, I say major because finding the connection for a ball valve would be a huge pain, I could plumb it like the return and try to use the valve to adjust the flow down.

My concern it that if the skimmer ever pops and I am not home I will have a burnt out pump.

I had to go back to the hang on Refugium in my 3rd chamber as my skimmer sits in the 2nd. Booo

 

[Lizardgi]

By my understanding it seems like you have two pumps moving water for a single sump setup. If that's the case, you'll never get it to work relying on two pumps. Even if they're set perfectly, one can easily change a bit and you're going to have both a flood and a burned out pump.

 

[phastroh]

Yeah it is true.

I will just have to install a ball valve on the large pump from the refugium to the return chamber and close it until it is set right.

That is how I regulate the return pump so it doesn't suck up all the water but I am sure almost all of us do that.

The pump in the refugium is adjustable but those never work right. You know the turning of the plastic inlet. Such a bad design.

I have a ball valve on the skimmer output but when you tighten that the skimmer height in the cup changes.

I think I will just leave it as it was and not have a stand alone refugium and keep the 2.5 tank for sick fish and drip acclimation. I can only use my heater for it when I am not mixing water although taking it out of the new water for an hour or two won't be a big deal since I won't be needing it right away anyway.