Hi! New Member and New Tank! (Soon)

I would make lines 2 and 5 shorter. You want them at least 4 inches from the top of the sump. Having them too high could cause your sump to accidentally overflow (you want your sump filled only about 2/3 of the way up).
 
Bifferwine said:
I would make lines 2 and 5 shorter. You want them at least 4 inches from the top of the sump. Having them too high could cause your sump to accidentally overflow (you want your sump filled only about 2/3 of the way up).
Click to expand...

So by that, if you're using a 30g for a refugium, then you'd be adding like approx. 17-18 gal. to your total volume then?
 
Yeah. If the power goes out, you're going to have all the water that's in your return line draining back into the sump. Plus, you will have some back siphon that occurs from the display tank. You need enough space in the sump to accomodate this extra water volume in an emergency. The exact amount will be different for every tank, so the best way to make sure you have enough space is to test it by switching off your return pump and verifying that the sump doesn't overflow.
 
Would putting a one way check valve on the return line down by the pump help as well? I think that I am going to go with my second idea of the refugium area first instead of second to allow for a deeper compartment. As soon as I get my stand and make sure everything fits I can start building it! I might try to pick the stand up tonight if I have time. I am super excited and I am sure I will think up a lot more questions as I go.
 
Check valves can get stuck. The best way to prevent back siphoning is to drill a couple of holes on the return. Just below the water line in the DT. That way if it back siphons once it reaches the holes air gets in stopping it. Do more then one hole. With snails and algae in the tank one hole can get clogged easily.
 
Well, a fuge is supposed to have low flow, otherwise all the water pounding down would shake your algae and pods too much. You'd really have to have an area for the water to pour into before hitting the algae. I think your original design works best, with the fuge in the middle, or go with the intake on one side, fuge on the other, and return in the middle (which was one I had sucess with).

Definitely put a one way check valve on the return in case of power outages. I didn't have one, but I solved that by aiming my return nozzle up a little, so it would allow air to break the siphone once the water receeded enough. I would have preferred a one way check valve.
 
If I go with my first design, wouldn't there still be a good ammount of flo going through the refugium area? Would it be too much flow? The only other way I can think of doing it would be the first chamber could hold the protien skimmer, second chamber could hold the pump. From the return line I could have a T one goes to the tank with a valve, and the other goes to the refugium with a valve. The refugium would sit in the third chamber area and over flow or have a bulkhead with a filter and pipe that goes back into the second chamber wich would be the return pump chamber.

I would still like to keep my skimmer area deep enough to hold two heaters. Does anyone know how deep I can keep my ASM 1GX skimmer? It came very little instructions, pretty much keep the output tube where it is in the beginning then I can use that to adjust the skim? I figure as long as the water level is not high enough to flow into the output of the skimmer i should be ok correct?

Wow, I been thinking all day about this refugium. You should have seen the picture of the first one I drew up at work today, trying to get the pump in the middle to slow down the flow in the refugium area. To be honest it looked like a water slide!

This design would also alow me to make my refugium deeper than the 10" or so that I orginally planned for.
 
Just wanted to share a video I made a year ago...just so you see how mine was set up. It's not for everyone, but it certainl worked perfectly for me and I could control all aspects of it. I had the fuge all the other end, skimmer on the first end, I split my intake pipes, and put a ball valve on the pipe that fills up the fuge, and it allowed me to control the flow, so that the fuge only received 25% of the tank water, and the skimmer intake area received 75%, and both the fuge and intake area met in the middle with the skimmed/fuged water.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LShjPYPvh_c]YouTube - Sump setup[/ame]
 
weontonflip, I'm confused why have a section made for micro bubbles on one side but not on the other, doesnt that defeat the purpose?
 
No...I do not get microbubbles coming out of the fuge area. The water flow in there is not powerful enough. The water pouring into there is LITERALLY just enough to make a ripple on the surface, which is what you want. Otherwise your pods might not like the turbulent water. I based this design of someone else's. No microbubbles got to my main tank in the year that I had it running.
 
Wontonflip, thanks for the nice video. My third idea is similar but i would be splitting the return line instead of the overflow line. I really like this idea because I can have a deeper refugium area.

For the record. I am now starting to realize how large a 90 gal tank is going to be!
I just picked up my stand tonight and it is huge! I will post pics maybe tomorrow. Now I can sart building my refugium, at least I can build the area for the skimmer and the bubble trap. The area for the return pump will have to wait untill I buy the return pump. So I can at least start on it.

Also while out at the fish shop I picked up a tube of aquarium safe silicone, now I just need the plexiglass panels. Oh and I also picked up a treats for my two chinchillas (I think they are getting jealous over the soon to be new fishies!)
Pretty soon it will be time to start a tank build thread! Once I get the tank and light and everything else. Oh no I got a lot of things to get still!
 
Ok I just got done cleaning and polishing my new stand! Next will be getting it level, and start working on the sump!

IMG_0479.jpg
 
Welcome! :bounce: I just found and read you posts. Only have one smart a** comment ... have you figured out for sure who you are?? "I guess first my name is Brian" :^:

Looking forward to reading more. Your stand is VERY nice. :Cheers:
 

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