Refugium

[cougaran]

Ok i've searched thru this site and the web. Now I'm going to ask, how does this sound? A 29 gallon refugium for a 90 gallon. I'm going to get an overflow box to get the water into the tank. I was going to do a combo of a deep sand bed, some live rock and caleurpa. I was thinking of making a small chamber for the return pump, so in case of some problem with the overflow box the main tank wont overflow, i'll just lose the return pump
I was going to place the heaters in the refugium. I was going to purchase a HOB aqua c Remora pro to go in the main tank. Now i'm not so sure if the refugium would prob be a better place. Can I or should i still stick with a HOB? I also want a big refugium, is there any point of splitting them up into small sections? I do understand that if the return pump fails or power goes out you have to have some room in the tank for overflow, i was also thinking of drilling near the top of the 29 an overflow that would hook up to the basement for drainage, just in case.

 

[RMPD109]

You should not have to worry about overflowing either the main or sump if the overflow is working properly. Dont worry about burning the return pump either since the two tanks will equalize themselves. Just remember to replace evaporated water(the open top of the refuge will allow a lot of evap) or the pump will dry up and burn up. Check the attached link for some ideas.

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

 

[cougaran]

I saw that website, but thanx. I'm just being ultra careful because i dont want a flood on the living room rug. So im adding precautions to the refugium. I dont want to drill the 90, so if i didnt divide up the refugium for the return pump and the main overflow failed, you would have the return pump pumping all the water out of the refugium into the main tank causing a disaterous flood, so i understand why they section the return pump off. I'm just trying to figure out why they make so many chambers on the refugiums/sump combos, i see it could help keep things from getting attached to the intake like caleurpa so they make a protein skimmer section. They mention a BUBBLE TRAP is this necessary and why???????????

But the question is really more is it worth just getting a HOB protein skimmer for the refugium and save the space in your refugium. Is there really any functioning difference between an in sump or a HOB like the Aqua c remora pro/Aqua c Urchin? Would a HOB protein skimmer work better on the main tank rather than the refugium?

Thanks in advance, i've been researching quite abit and I am trying to figure out what I want for my setup.

 

[RMPD109]

The HOB skimmer wont work well in the sump(unless it is set inside). The water level in the sump will not be up to the top like the water level in the tank. The bubble traps are used to section off the sump/refuge and help small bubbles to dissipate before the water returns to the main. I would not be concerned about the overflow failing. Many people use them (including myself) and have never had problems. Off course there is always the chance.

 

[Phyl]

I would be concerned about the overflow failing (I'm just that way) so I'd install a float valve to shut the pump off in the event that the water got too low in the fuge. I did this in both my fuge (even though it has 2 outlets for the water as a safe second) and in my 30G QT overflowing into my 30G garbage can!

I'm all for safe seconds (yes, there's SCUBA running through my veins)!

 

[Dr.Nate]

this may be a stupid idea, but couldn't you position the intake of the return pump just an inch or two below the water surface of the fuge, so that if the water level falls below that line, it won't overflow the main? (and the same for the main into the sump)? You might end up with a burned out pump but at least you save your carpet?

 

[Phyl]

Same theory as baffling off one section of the sump/fuge. Yes. You could do that and in both of those cases burn out the pump. Better the pump than your carpet, I always say. That wasn't possible with my fuge setup because the feed pump for the fuge is before the filter and stuffed way down at the bottom where my tank overflow falls in and there's no way to suspend it so that it bottoms out in time to protect my carpet (there's very little room for error in my 10g fuge). In the case of my QT the pump was causing a vortex at the surface which was throwing microbubbles into the tank and that was very undesireable also!

 

[Dr.Nate]

ahhh....I didn't think about it causing bubbles....

 

[saltwatersmac]

You can get a bigger, more efficient in-sump skimmer than in the HOB models. But if you just wanted to save space it seems to me that a HOB would do just as good or better in the fuge since you are only getting surface water.