return pump for 58 gallon RR

[longhorn_20m]

My plan is to use a Blueline 800 as my return pump from sump. Will this work? I'm going to T off my overflow to where a majority will flow to the return chamber, and the rest will go through the refugium, which is what I will use sump for. The line flowing straight down will have valve under the T, that way I can control how much is falling straight into the return section and the excess is going into the refugium, which flows into the return chamber. I'm hoping this will work, if you see any problems or upgrades, please let me know. The attachment shows it, and yes it is crappy and little time to complete.

[NaCl_H2O]

I assume "Drwaing is not to scale" applies? But I have two primary coments:

1) Doesn't appear that you have much "Sump" area? Remember, as you lose water to evaporation, this is the area that needs reserve capacity to deal with the reduced volume.

2) If your drain is really that close to the return pump, you will be sucking lots of bubbles back ito the tank.

[Richard]

Maybe you just left it off the drawing but you should make your pump easily removable for servicing. Like...
Pump Output -> Union -> Aquarium
Pump Intake -> Union -> Ball Valve -> Sump

[matt]

I did a variation on this set up and it worked well. Basically, I divided the sump into three sections; the refugium and central drain to the return sections were both large, and the drain from the tank was small. On your drawing, if you placed another divider in the refugium section, and then plumbed your return pump to that, both the flow from the tank drain and the refugium would flow over baffles into that central section, then to the return pump and back up. This would eliminate your bubble problem. Unfortunately, it also makes your refugium smaller, but you can compensate for that by just building a larger sump.

There are some good PVC fittings for this. You get an elbow with a side outlet; the main elbow could be 1" or 1.5" as you want, the side outlet is always .5" threaded. Then, you put a ball valve on that section. Since the main flow is going through an elbow, there's enough pressure to ensure a good flow into the side outlet. The big advantage of this is that drain from the tank is unrestricted; if anthing clogs the line, flow to your refugium is blocked, but not the main drain. Otherwise, eventually you'll be needing a big mop, trust me.

Somewhere on an old thread there's a photo of my set up. You can look in the for sale forum, sometime last August when I sold all my stuff. I also made a sump for Tina, (REEFAHOLIC) and you can search for a thread by her that has photos of it. It's relevant to this thread because it's the same design, except with a tricky PVC channel from the central section to the side of the sump, so she could place her return pump on the side of the sump. That sump was alot of work; almost 100 gallons capacity, made out of 3/8" cast. One neat design feature on that sump, if you're building your own, is that the divider between the refugium section and the central return section, as well as the end of the sump on the refugium side, is black acrylic rather than clear. This allows you to light the refugium without direct light on any equipment next to the sump like a reactor or skimmer. This helps alot with algae build up.

Have fun!

[eric]

I think the valve should be on the fuge side of the T. That's the flow you want to control as well as Matt's reason. Otherwise, like they said, the little return section is going to drain quickly with evaporation ( I wish mine were larger now) and you're gonna suck air bubbles. As for your actual question, don't know anything about that pump. The pump is further down the list of priorities unless that's the one item you already have and are building aroun it.

Matt, I don't understand your elbow with a side outlet description. Sounds like a T with one reduced leg. I can't seem to figure out how to search for something that far back in the for sale forum.

[longhorn_20m]

Thanks for all the info, I will at previous posts to see the designs and figure out also the fitting/arrangement you are talking about for controlling flow to refugium.

[longhorn_20m]

Here is one link, but I cannot get pictures on it, can anyone else?

http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5441&high light=refugium

[matt]

I guess the photo is not stored. Here's a photo which shpws the set up on my old tank. The elbow with side outlet is a fitting that you can find at Lowes.

[longhorn_20m]

Matt,

How bout this, if this can't work, then I will do what you did.

It is based off the below design:

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/a/sump_model_a.html

But I will add one piece of acrylic as shown below, that way it will split what is going into refugium and to sump "hallway", then both will overflow into return section.

Please let me know if this is a good idea, if not, I will incorporate your idea, since I have put together the acrylic, but haven't added the baffles/inside pieces yet. So still can change.

Thanks for all the info, interested in hearing feedback on this idea now.

[longhorn_20m]

here is diagram

[matt]

Sure that will work, but you don't get the split flow option where your divert some to the refugium, at least from what I can see; maybe I'm missing something.

[longhorn_20m]

It will split, hopefully half will go down the chute into return section and the other half through refugium. I'm setting up exactly what is in the link, but then adding that one piece of acrylic to split the overflow, hopefully this will work.