Opinions on sump design. Please.

[artur]

Now I'm ready to go. But I need your opinion. Sump will be 36x12x16. Water drains from two drains to filter sock. In the same chamber is skimmer. then bubble trap and return section. In third chamber is fuge.Water from fuge will drain to return section. Water to the fuge should go from one drain splitter with ball valve to adjust flow. In my case it will be hard because for drains I use 3 ft. ready flex hoses, I know it will be not as good but I might split one of the returns. I have two concerns. First that baffle for fuge should be like an inch taller then thouse two from bubble trap right? So water from return section do not mix with fuge. Second that design give me the same < steady level of water> in skimmer,drains section. Please let me know.Thanks.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I would switch the fuge and return sections, no need to overcomplicate things, keep it simple silly. More hose connections means more potential points of failuer.

As long as you determine the water level correctly it should be okay. The display should be full and overflowing into the sump, then with the pump off fill the sump all the way. Then turn on the pump. This will take some water from the sump and put it in the display and this will be how it flows all the time. Mark the water level in the pump section of the sump with the pump running and this will be your absolute max water level in the sump (ideally use an automatic top off).

I wouldn't use filter socks, or any mechanical filtration (at least if this is a reef tank). They clog, take food from filter feeders, and the debris can breakdown into nitrate and phosphate if not removed frequently enough.

You really only need the two walls between the skimmer section and the return section, the water should go down first and then up. I would ditch wall number one.

For wall number 2 I would not go all the way to the top of the sump. In a worse case scenario and somehow the flow between walls two and three was blocked you want a backup. Some people feel this should never matter, but if it doesn't matter than not having that bit of glass up there definitely won't hurt anything, but could hurt if it is there.

 

[cmor1701d]

Even i fyuo keep all 3 part of the bubble trap, the middle section should be about an inch off the bottom and end about an inch above the last section.

 

[artur]

I would switch the fuge and return sections, no need to overcomplicate things, keep it simple silly. More hose connections means more potential points of failuer.

As long as you determine the water level correctly it should be okay. The display should be full and overflowing into the sump, then with the pump off fill the sump all the way. Then turn on the pump. This will take some water from the sump and put it in the display and this will be how it flows all the time. Mark the water level in the pump section of the sump with the pump running and this will be your absolute max water level in the sump (ideally use an automatic top off).

I wouldn't use filter socks, or any mechanical filtration (at least if this is a reef tank). They clog, take food from filter feeders, and the debris can breakdown into nitrate and phosphate if not removed frequently enough.

You really only need the two walls between the skimmer section and the return section, the water should go down first and then up. I would ditch wall number one.

For wall number 2 I would not go all the way to the top of the sump. In a worse case scenario and somehow the flow between walls two and three was blocked you want a backup. Some people feel this should never matter, but if it doesn't matter than not having that bit of glass up there definitely won't hurt anything, but could hurt if it is there.

Yes I know it will be simplier to do fuge and return. The reason for this set up is I do not want that full flow go thru fuge. The way I draw it I can restrict flow thru fuge.Am I wrong? I always read that flow thru sump should be lik 20% or less than sump flow.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I used to think the same thing and then someone pointed out on here that as long as it is wet it is working. There is still a max though, too much flow and all the macroalgae will be pushed to the drain or output from the fuge. Now that I think about it a little more I had the same problem so I would probably do something similar to your plan if I redid my sump. It may be easier to adjust the flow by simply having a small pump moving water from the pump section to the fuge. This would also prevent any issues of bubbles going into the fuge from the overflow going into the pump section. It is another pump but I personally would probably do it that way.