need your opinion about my desgin for 20 gal sump

[hobogato]

couple of things:

1. i would put the skimmer feed pump in the same chamber as the return pump and the skimmer drain before the tripple baffle, no in the middle of it.

2. unless you have an auto-topoff system, you will have a hard time keeping up with adding water to replace evaporation. the evaporation of the entire system will show up in the return pump chamber, which can cause that water level to drop drastically since you have such a small chamber there. i would suggest an RO water reservoir somewhere that drains into the return chamber via float valve or auto topoff controller, that way you just have to fill the RO tank every so often.

[matt]

I'm sorry, but it's a little difficult to understand some of what you're saying. I'm pretty sure Ace was suggesting that the skimmer drain and feed be in the same compartment, both before the baffles all the way on the left. If you're running a skimmer for a 75 gallon tank on a maxijet, you're being pretty optimistic. Or is there another skimmer pump, like a recirculating needlewheel?

There's no real purpose to your baffles on the right other than the carbon and sponge filter, right? I think you're better off without those baffles, so that your evaporation will be spread out over a larger are in the sump. You can just get a small canister to run carbon and/or a sponge when you want to. It will work better as well.

[matt]

Is the middle section a refugium? If that's the case, I'd consider changing the design so that:

1. The whole thing is much bigger
2. The tank drain/skimmer area is on one side, then the refugium is on the opposite side, and both those sections drain to a middle area where you have the return pump. You get water to the refugium by putting a tee in your tank drain and diverting some of the water to the refugium. There's a thread on the for sale forum about a 45 breeder for sale; if you look at the photo of the sump/refugium for that tank, you'll see exactly what I mean.

This has two advantages; it allow you to independently control the flow to the refugium and it sends tank water directly to the refugium, rather than skimmed water. Increasing the size, if possible, is important because you want a sizable refugium and a sizable return/evaporation area.

[hobogato]

I'm pretty sure Ace was suggesting that the skimmer drain and feed be in the same compartment, both before the baffles all the way on the left.

yep

and yes, i would put the skimmer feed pump in the same area as the return pump, you will just have to have a longer tube to connect it to the skimmer - leave it where it is.