20G Long sump design

[koffee]

Here's what I came up with so far. I would appreciate any feedback or tips.

The first chamber (on the left) is where the overflow spills into the sump through a sock. It is also the feed/return for the skimmer. A small power head is also in this chamber, plumbed to feed the fuge at the other end.

Baffles come next. I forgot to include a media tray in the drawing. It would go between and over and then under. Is the first over baffle needed? Right now, water goes over, under, over, and under. Is under, over, under enough?

The center of the sump hold the return pump. I may tee it with a valve back to the intake to control flow.

Finally, the fuge is on the right end. It is fed from a power head in the first (intake) chamber. Instead of spilling over the baffle, it drains via PVC, capped with a strainer inside the fuge. I hope this will reduce bubbles entering the return chamber. A light would sit over the fuge side, of course.

Some designs have the flow from the tank go through a tee, which leads directly to the sump, and also a valve to feed the fuge. Would this be better than the small PH in the intake chamber? My theory was that the fuge could flow even when the main pump is off.

Note that this supports a 38G (3 foot long) tank with PCs for light, so a heater would sit inside the sump somewhere. Is the return a good spot, or would the intake be better?

The main problem I face with this design is that I'm not about to attempt to drill a bulkhead in the fuge glass baffle. I am willing to attempt to cut the glass baffles in nice straight lines. So, I would either have to use acrylic, or have that piece done by pros.

 

[DaveK]

In my opinion, your design is good, but I would "fine tune" it as follows.

There is no need to use four baffles on the left. Two will be plenty.

Rather than using pvc pipe and drilling a baffle, you would be a lot better using an arrangement of baffles similar to what you have on th left side. They will act as a bubble trap.

Plumb the supply water to the refugium from the main return pump. You want the water going into the refugium part to be as clean as possible, so that it doesn't become a dirt trap. You'll also have one less pump to clean.

Use a filter sock as a mechanical filter, installing it at the point where the water from the overflow enters the sump.

It is possible that the center area for the return pump is too small. It's amazing how much live water (water that will drain back to the sump when the return pump is shut off) can be in a reef system.

 

[BigAl07]

I agree that you want to remove the pump going from the sump to refugeium but have to slightly disagree with DaveK on the "source" of the water. If you're wanting a refugium for nutrient export you want it to get water directly from the DT rather than skimmed and filtered water. I can't get my mind around how you would do this with a filter sock but you want as much "raw" water to the cheato so it can do what you're trying to do. Yes I agree that detritus can/will accumulate but that's part of it. You add a quality clean up crew to handle that and your cheato will grow like mad.

Allen

 

[lcstorc]

The problem you are going to have is the same one I have. Balancing the flow into and out of the fuge. In my case my fuge water comes from a t from the overflow. Part of the overflow goes directly to the sump and part goes to the fuge. The fuge water feeds into the return chamber of the sump. What I have found is that the water moves very slowly through the strainer and pvc so I have to keep the flow through the fuge very very slow. If I had it to do over I would double the flow by adding another pipe. Right now I use a ball valve to limit the water going into the fuge so the return to the sump can keep up. Be sure to have some way of restricting the pump going into the fuge so you can do the same thing.
In my case I pretty much had to do it this way since they are separate tanks. Since yours is all in one I would probably do a set of shorter baffles between the fuge and the return. The baffles can handle more flow than the pipe will.
I know a fuge is supposed to be slow by mine is ridiculously slow so I want you to avoid the problem. Some day we will take the fuge out and drill another hole to make ours work better. Meanwhile I have a small power head in the fuge to keep the water moving a bit.

 

[BigAl07]

Good idea Lynn. I didn't even SEE the pipe feeding the return from the fuge. That's another item you can skip further simplifying your set up.

Allen

 

[koffee]

Thanks for the input so far. How's this redesign?

I switched to an under/over/under baffle just like melevsreef designs. How close should the top of the over baffle be to the normal water level?

Will gravity and the ball valve on the PVC from the overflow be enough to drive the fuge? I guess I don't understand water movement enough - I would think that, even with the valve wide open, the water would tend to move along the shorter path down through the sock.

Hmmm - I just noticed that I lowered the fuge level. I didn't mean to do this. I think it would be best to keep the fuge water as high as possible, and let it waterfall into the return. The non-fuge half of the sump could handle extra water when the pump is off without running back into the fuge.

Just noticed another thing. If the fuge water spills over a baffle, I will probably put more bubbles into the return. Should I baffle the fuge side just like the intake side, just without the media tray?

 

[BigAl07]

That design is getting there (at least in My eyes) but I fear with that "Tee" off of the main line you won't get much flow to your fuge. There are better "Tees" than that one I think it's called a "street Tee" and it should allow for more flow being directed to your fuge.

Allen

 

[koffee]

As far as I can tell, a street tee is like a reducing tee, but it reduces the straight-through instead of the part that tees off.

Flow into the fuge is why I was first thinking a PH in the intake. I'm still not convinced this is wrong. The plumbing isn't much more involved than what I have above. Sure, it is another pump to maintain, but it not like they have to be cleaned daily.

I guess another option would be to flip the sump around so that the fuge is under the overflow. Then, the ball valve would be on the feed into the fuge, below the tee instead of to the side. As it is closed, water would take the long, unobstructed path over to the intake and sock. I just don't want to limit the flow into the intake otherwise my overflow may over flow.

 

[BigAl07]

No they doh't have to be clenaed daily but they do introduce heat and increase your chances of some type of mechanical failure into your system. I have mine designed (still designing and not yet gluing) to have a street tee (it's more of a sweeping Tee as opposed to an exact 90.

I'll try to find a pic of what I am trying to explain and post shortly.

Allen