Looking for feedback on this design

[Jason Rhoads]

I am planning my refugium setup for my new fish room and want to get feedback on this design. My goal is to have three filtration zones. Water from the DT will drain through the four returns into the 55g refugium where I will plant seagrass and macro algae. From there it will go into the sump where there will be a cryptic zone of about 20g. It is then pumped up to a 30g refugium where it will then gravity feed back to the DT. 

 

With this setup I should get the best of both refugium worlds, dirty water direct from the DT will feed macro/sponges, and pods/food produced in the upper refugium can travel propeller free into the DT. Here are some rough Sketchup pics:

 

 

View sans wall:

 

View from the DT:

 

 

View from the couch

 

[YHSublime]

I'm terrible with stuff like this, but it looks good to me. My one piece of advice would be to get a bigger tank for that gigantic clownfish. A 600 should probably do it.

[John Ford]

That's a mighty big clown you got there

(I have nothing to add to your setup, Sorry to spam) in the time I debated posting this I was Beat to the punch

Edited January 5, 2014 by John Ford

[bendeng]

I'm terrible with stuff like this, but it looks good to me. My one piece of advice would be to get a bigger tank for that gigantic clownfish. A 600 should probably do it.

Youll also need a giant anenome...

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

 

[howaboutme]

Another post not answering your question. You can create a jpeg from sketchup instead of doing screen captures. Go to file, export, 2d image. Good luck on the build!

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

 

[Scott_LM]

I think you need a bigger sump.  I have a 30 gallon sump on a 200 gallon tank with 2 overflows.  With a mag 12 as my return pump my sump water level fluctuates about 6-8 inches between pump on and pump off.  This is because the amount of water needed to fill the piping and level in which is rises above the weir in the display.  When you have multiple tanks overflowing into each other you have to account for this added water.  I think your sump should be at least a 55 if not something larger and start with the water level as low as you can until you get the logistics worked out.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Scott_LM

[davelin315]

I have never felt that impellers did much damage to life in a refugium so I would probably not go with a two stage one. Also, remember that all of your flow will pass through each of these tanks and a pump will move more water than a gravity feed. I see that you have an emergency overflow to the refugium which is good planning, but I wonder how effective your return to the DT will be. Perhaps if you like this design enough you can build a Herbie overflow back to the DT and then the emergency overflow to the refugium is the backup that will always run. You'll then scrub your water a bit more as well. In terms of the cryptic zone, what type of flow are you looking for? Looks like you only have one overflow from stage 1 to 2, is that right? The overall math in terms of flow is not making sense to me, but I am having trouble reading the graphics on an iPad mini...

Edited January 6, 2014 by davelin315
Stupid iPad changed "Herbie" to Heriberto...

[Jason Rhoads]

Hah, yes, that clownfish is pretty large, you should see the female! 

 

As for the sump size, that is a good point Scott_LM, I didnt consider that I would be adding that much more water to what could flow back into the sump. I will take a hard look at how much water-level rise I can expect in the event of power outage. 

 

Dave, I agree with you in that I am unsure how much damage is really done by our pumps. However, I have never had a refugium plumbed upstream from the DT, and want to see if it works any magic. Good points about the gravity -vs- pressurized flow through pipe. I ran some rough tests with my pump and two 1" PVC drains are just about perfect at handling the flow with the amount of head loss I anticipate. Plus, I am running a DC pump, so dialing it down is not a problem. 

As to the returns. The four I have from the DT are overkill, I drilled it with getting a bigger pump in mind, but doubt I need more than what I have.  I have two 1" returns from the sea grass/macro fuge (stage 1) to the sump in the sketch, but in practice I will have three or four. 

 

I suppose I should plan on having the "emergency" overflow being set at the same height or just slightly higher than the overflows from the upper (stage 3) refugium. This way it is always moving water from the top fuge back the first stage.  

 

My only concern is that I will be losing some flow through the DT with this method.  

[Jim Mc]

I would use the Herbie regardless because I think you are going to get air suction noise in your overflow.  Not a huge issue but it is in your living room like my DT and you want it quiet.  I use a waveline DC 1200 and still need to fine tune the overflows with a gate valve to make it silent.

[howaboutme]

Jason,

 

Here is the build thread we discussed earlier that uses various different filtration zones in it's fuge:

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2146585

 

You can just scan the thread for the guys drawings of his fuge design to get to the point instead of reading it from the beginning.