Sump Design

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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Mandy11 said:
I agree that you want the fuge to receive clean water, isnt that why the skimmer is in first chamber ?
And a sock if you have excess particulate ?
I feel you can have slower flow through your fuge, as we have done. We run the 5000lt/hr with two T-off to UV and Reactors so technically I run probable about 4000lt/hr through mine. It works just fine ?
Are you saying I need to increase by return pump flow to the DT ?
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Yes, you want to give the refugium time to process the water your running through it.

Flow through the entire sump is a little different. In the early days of reef keeping the "magic number" was that your wanted to turn over the tank volume 5 times an hour or more. Since them it's been going up and people tend to recommend 10 or even a lot more. People seem to demand more and more flow through the filtration system.

I'd say that in many cases you do want high flow, but it's need not come all from the filtration system. You can add a closed loop or circulation pumps to the display tank, and get a lot more flow from that, rather than make the entire filtration system larger.

In this day and age, your also trying to keep the cost of running the system down. It's often much less expensive to run a circulation pump compared to a return pump. It's also less expensive if you can run a smaller return pump. It all comes down to striking a balance between everything.

To give you an idea, at one time I was using an Iwaki WMD-100RT pump to run everything. Lots of flow, high pressure, and massive power consumption. The electric company loved that. When I upgraded the filtration system I was able to replace it with two smaller pumps and the system consumed far less power.

The bottom line is that if your livestock is doing well and your getting a turn over through the filtration system of roughly 5 times an hour and you have enough additional circulation in the display tank, you should be fine.
 
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Mandy11

Active Member
I find that very interesting, thank you.
I don't know if maybe its an Australian thing but our tank turnover thoughts are getting lower not higher. Most of the people I know are like me and only turning over 2 - 5 times an hours.
I think as the refuge became a lot more popular our thoughts have changed.
Yet the internal DT flow is far greater than it ever used to be. But I suppose that comes with more modern and researched power heads in general.
 
cracker

cracker

Well-Known Member
Mandy , Yes it's to keep any dirt from collecting. I have 3 drains. one feeds raw water to the skimmer section the 2nd feeds raw water to the refugium, the 3rd dumps to a sock . My ref is full of LR and it is a dirt trap for sure. I need to rethink this setup. I have serious excess nutrient issues. Thanks Dave, Your OP's make good sense!
Mandy, that pic of Your sump is very cool It's spotless!
 
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Mandy11

Active Member
cracker said:
Mandy , Yes it's to keep any dirt from collecting. I have 3 drains. one feeds raw water to the skimmer section the 2nd feeds raw water to the refugium, the 3rd dumps to a sock . My ref is full of LR and it is a dirt trap for sure. I need to rethink this setup. I have serious excess nutrient issues. Thanks Dave, Your OP's make good sense!
Mandy, that pic of Your sump is very cool It's spotless!
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My sump gets drained and wet/dry vac every 3 months. Rocks get rinsed & chateau get culled then as well. I agree, lots of nutrients can be hidden in the sump . I think we sometimes get so concerned about DT looking great & forget that the sump is just as important. :) I also have CUC in there. Snails , shrimp & abalone, she is great at cleaning between the baffles.
 
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