Sump Desighn, Check it out, Will this Work?

[TwistedMind]

15922


Comments and thoughts greatly appreciated. I have a 55 Tall that I am converting to the sump.

EDIT : I think I will put my two 300 W heaters in the frag shelf Area.

[Troy Valentine]

Looks good... Just curious, why "T" off your return. Why not "Y" off your drain to supply your fuge. Unfiltered water directly from the tank would probably feed your fuge better.

Just a thought

[TwistedMind]

I figured off the return pump so I can control the flow to the refugium, if I do it off the overflow I dont have any control over how fast the water moves through it.

I was under the impression you wanted a nice slow flow through the refugium in order for the critters and plants to do a good job. I dont want to put a valve on my overflow, it sort of defeats the purpose of buying a 1500 GPH system.

Unless I am doing something wrong.

[Troy Valentine]

It looks like you have 3 lines going into your sump. 2 inlet - 1 refugium. You are going to need a gate valve to control the supply to the refuge from the return pump. Instead of a "T" off of the return with a gate valve to control flow, you would "Y" off 1 of the 2 inlet/drain lines along with a gate valve to control flow to the fuge. Your system will still maintain the same drain capacity. All it would do is lessen the volume of water going into the the inlet/live rock chamber.
Use gravity when you can instead of the pressure of a return pump to supply your fuge. Keep the return as simple as possible A to B try and eliminate all catastrophic leak potentials.