Suggestion

[treesprite]

Do you want to be able to work in your sump or drain it for water changes, even completely, WITHOUT having to shut down your return pump or refugium? Avoid baffles in the sump? Keep the water level in the sump steady for the skimmer without dealing with baffles , even if you have no ATO?

 

Easy - use a separate container for your refugium (fed by the sump). I LOVE having separate sump and refugium! Yes it is true that a separate container will take up space, but the benefits of doing it are well worth it!

 

You plumb the sump to flow to the refugium, with an alternate path w/valve so you can bypass the sump.

 

Return pump goes in the refugium.

 

Your macros and fuge rock are your baffles! You will NOT need space-consuming baffles in the sump unless you have a second return in there and don't want to put a piece of foam on its intake (which doesn't matter, because the pods and such get in the tank via the refugium return). You could still put baffles in front if it though (I use a single piece of glass raised from bottom of tank slightly, with liverock pieces/rubble around the bottom of the glass).

 

You can surround the refugium return with rock to keep macros from getting into the tank. Please make sure to find out what size return to use, as a refugium return needs to be relatively small for the macros to have time to process nutrients/nitrate.

 

Using separate containers is AWESOME!

Edited February 27, 2011 by treesprite

[Big Country]

I hope you have a check valve on your return lines. If I tried to do that my refugium would overflow from the backflow from the tank when the power goes out.

[treesprite]

I hope you have a check valve on your return lines. If I tried to do that my refugium would overflow from the backflow from the tank when the power goes out.

 

There are 3 other ways to solve that problem.

1. Leave room in your sump or refugium to allow for the backflow (I use a 40 hex half filled).

2. Drill a small hole in the return just below the water's surface in the DT, so if the water goes that low, the hole will be exposed and the air going in will break the backflow siphon.

3. Have the fuge plumbed to overflow into an empty tank so if there is too much backflow for the fuge, it goes in there.