refuge/sump

[clamgal]

Do any of you have pictures of your sump/refuge? I haven't built mine yet and I am trying to decide how to design it. Would love your input. I am planning on keeping a few clams, one carpet anemone, a pair of clown fish, and maybe 2 or 3 tangs.

I have a Nautilus TE Skimmer I plan to put in it too.

[R.Allard]

i built mine out of an oceanic 20 gal long it works great
if you want ill send ya pictures
but all ya need is the tank and a lil plex and some silicone.
total cost was about 50 bucks.
R.

[Jimnorris]

Clamgal,
(great name!)
I have two that were custom built by Bill (member). One is a 80 gallon and the other is a 50 gallon. They are both refugs. He did an outstanding job! I will take some pictures for you later!
Jim

[Henry]

I put a drawing in my pic gallery. I borrowed this from someone on RC, but this is how I have mine setup. Its a 55gal tank.

Henry

[matt]

Hi;

I recently built an interesting sump/refugium. I don't have any pictures, but I'll try to describe it. It's made out of 1/4" acrylic. I used extruded, before i learned that cast acrylic is much better for any project that's got to hold a lot of water, like more than a gallon.

It's a rectangle, about 30" by 14" by 14" deep. Larger would work better, but that's all I could fit in my stand. Basically, there are 3 sections: on the right, a 4" section to catch the drain from the tank, a 12" middle section to hold the skimmer and fit the outlet bulkhead, and a 14" section on the left that's a refugium. I teed off the drain with the 1X1X 1/2" side outlet elbow. The 1/2" outlet holds a ball valve which regulates flow to the refugium. The refugium drains into the center section through a 3/4" bulkhead high in the divider between the refugium and the center section. There's a bubble trap, basically an under/over set of baffles, separating the right (drain) section from the center section. Low in the left corner of the center section, I drilled for a 1" bulkhead that attaches to my return pump.

The idea is that water from the tank and the refugium both drain into the center from either side. This way you can send some tank water directly to the refugium, and water from the refugium doesn't get skimmed; it drains close to the return pump outlet. You don't need any supplemental powerhead to feed the refugium, and in a power outage or return pump failure, the refugium stays full. Most of the micro bubbles are caught by the baffles between the right and center sections, and I improved it by putting an elbow inside the outlet bulkhead, facing down, so that the return pump draws water from very low in the sump.

It's working well, and I think it's a good simple way to have separate flow rates for the main sump and refugium. Plus, you're not sending skimmed water to the refugium or subjecting the refugium to the chemical changes that ocurr in a sump when you dose KW or other supplements.

As far as a class sump/refugium goes, I've had bad luck with siliconing acrylic to glass. Other folks have had no problems, but for me, a good acrylic sump is the way to go.

Matt

[clamgal]

Thanks guys for th replies. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you, but I've been very busy. The info you gave me helps a lot. Matt I will be taking your description to guy who builds my sump. I have store credit at Alamo Aquatics and will use it to build it.

If anyone has any more pics - would love to see them.

[captexas]

Clamgal -
Wish I had a digital camera to take pics, but spend always spend my money on my tank instead of other things! For my sump, I got a 29 gallon glass tank. The cheapest I could find the tank by itself was over at Fintique on West Ave. Then I went to Lowe's and happened to find some glass already cut to perfect size (12x10in) to use for baffles. I simply siliconed them in place with some aquarium silicone you can find in the super glue/adhesives section in the paint department at Home Depot. The water comes down the drain lines at the end of the tank and then goes under a baffle about 3in. from the end and then goes over a second baffle about 3in. from that one. There is a large open middle section and then the water falls over another baffle that is about 6in. or so from the far end where my Mag12 return pump sits. Pretty simple to do.

Matt -
Sounds like a really good setup. Be nice to see a pic sometime. I am working on setting up a 75g tank and may use some of your ideas. I tried to have a refugium in the middle section of my sump, but too much water flow and air bubbles. Plus stuff from the fuge would clog up the foam filter on my return pump. Thanks for your great ideas

[matt]

If i had a camera, i 'd post a picture for you. Just make sure the guy who makes it uses 1/4" cast acrylic, like Cyro GP. He'll grumble, because it's twice the price of regular extruded acrylic. Do it!

HTH

Matt