Making huge fuge/sump need some advice

[dan]

NO!NO! keep it in the 180. i have a 40 gal. fuge and it's to small. wish i had a 100 gal. the 40 drains in top of main tank on a higher stand. that way all my critters come in alive. and boy they do come in!

[wkopplin]

Construction starts this weekend on the project. I need to get the 180 drilled, but the wall to seal in my fish room will begin construction as will the plumbing to run a sink off the input hose to my water softener. Electricians are coming out to install 4 GFI's and 8 regular sockets in the wall to provide plenty of power to the tank. Everything will be in the fish room, including the light ballasts.

As far as the returns go, I am wanting to use two 3/4" sea swirls, but might upgrade to 1". Can a SCWD be used with those?

[matt]

Blake;

Here's the thing about using sqwd and sea swirls together. Sea swirls are rated for a given flow. If you're using the sqwd to alternate between the 2 sea swirls, you can only push the rated flow for one sea swirl to the pair. Like, let's say each sea swirl is rated for 1000gph, without the sqwd you could drive them both with a 2000 gph pump, getting a really good flow through each sea swirl. If you use a sqwd, you can only use a 1000 gph pump for the same pair. My suggestion is to push as much as you can through the sea swirls and set up the sqwd on another pair of return nozzles. I also suggest the 1" sea swirls for a big tank; they can handle a lot more flow and they don't cost much extra.

I really like my sea swirls, even though I hated paying for them. I think they're overpriced and there is a big thread on making them yourself; it got censored due to patent issues, but maybe you can find it. Now that they'rre in my tank, though, I have to say they REALLY improve the character of the water movement. Probably the best scenario for you would be to consider making a big surge device that you could keep in the garage. That would be somewhat of a challenge to get together, but you'd have unbelievable flow in the tank. You could keep many corals that won't survive or grow well in most aquariums because they need surging flow.

Boy, it's fun making these suggestions; I can dream about the set up but don't have to deal with the cost or hassle in making it a reality!

[wkopplin]

Matt,

As always, thanks for the help. Anytime you want to come over and observe the project, you are more than welcome. Oh yeah, can you pick up some pvc cement on the way..... hehe.

[TexasState]

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...de=Tunze_pumps

[wkopplin]

OK, one more question concerning this setup.

Should I hook the return pump to the sump and split a line off of it to the fuge and then have it gravity drain back into the sump?

If I do that, I would not have to put glass baffles in the 180 at all. I would also only have to get one hole drilled. I like this idea. It would also allow me to use the full 180 gallons for the fuge rather than wasting space worrying about baffles and bubble traps.

I would the build the bubble traps into the 55 gallon tank or have a pretty large sump built.

[TexasState]

Normally, you would want the refugium in the last stage. That way, you don't skim out the good live stuff growing from the refugium. You don't need to put a skimmer in sump, you can hook it up externally. Take a look at this picture as just an example of how a skimmer can be hook up externally.

You can use a u-tube instead of drilling the bottom of the tank. You will lose GPH if you use plumb the U-tube instead of drilling.
You will want to put a baffle in the return area of your refugium to prevent the macro algae from clogging up your return (pump or gravity flow.)

[wkopplin]

The skimmer will be external. If I put the gravity drain from the fuge directly into the compartment with the return pump, it would bypass the skimmer alltogether.. Since I am branching off the return pump to get water to the fuge anyway, it has already been skimmed. The major downside I see is that I would be sending plankton rich fuge water from the fuge to the sump and then split between the fuge and tank again so not all of the fuge water is making it back into the tank. I can live with that though. The basic setup will still be easier to build, plumb and maintain.

That diagram did give me a good idea for the system pump. Thanks for that.

[TexasState]

That picture didn't show the relationship, but you will want to give the skimmer it own dedicated pump. So, one pump for the skimmer, one pump for the return.

[wkopplin]

That is how we are designing it. Matt is building my skimmer and we are using an Iwaki 70RLT to power just the skimmer. I have a monster Dolphin Aqua Sea 5200 for the return pump. The Dolphin puts out quite a bit more water than the tank will be able to drain, so I have no problem splicing off the main return line for the fuge and my propagation tanks. I will try to draw a pic of the whole system later today. I think I have it more or less figured out.

I do like the idea in the pic above of having a four way tee off the main pump with one being an "auxilliary line" in case I want to add a chiller later down the road. That is a good idea.