sump and refugium question

[pelochas]

i have a wet dry trickle filter for my 75 gal tank. its about 20 gallons. no water in yet, still planning and reading.

i have decided to remove the bio balls. i also added a protein skimmer and also a ro/di water filter.

i see that all the refugiums are section separate from the skimmer section amd return section. why? the skimmer section only feeds the return section and the refugium section only flows to the return section also

can the water flow thru the skimmer section then thru the refugium then over to the return section?

 

[ellisz]

I don't think it really matters. Skimmers are normally put some distance from the return pump since the produce bubbles. My last sump had the drain flow to the skimmer chamber then to the fuge chamber then to the return chamber.

My current sump has the drain on the left side, the skimmer is on the left middle, the refugium is on the right side and the return pump is in the middle.

No right or wrong way to do it in my book. just keep in mind with a sump with chambers, the return pump chamber will be the one that shows the evaporation. My sump now is just one big chamber with the refugium as a separate container in the sump. I use a small PH to supply water to the refugium.

 

[pelochas]

i see most of the sumps are like your current sump where the middle chamber is the return.

my wet dry filter or sump has a divider but it is only one divider where as most of the sumps have is three dividers close to each other where one is higher than the other two beside the higher one. is this called a bubble trap? since my filter doesnt have this how can i do this and is this easy to do. i will need to cut and add dividers on both chambers.

also the middle chamber is about twice as large as the incoming water chamber and the outgoing water chamber. should i have the refugium chamber in the larger chamber?

 

[ellisz]

The reason for the dividers is for bubbles and in the case of a refugium, to keep sand and plants out of the pumps. My sump does not have "chambers". I have a 75 gal stock tank with a 12 gal rubbermaid tub inside the 75 gal. I have a hole drilled in the smaller tub so it will drain into the stock tank. I use rock to act as my bubble trap. My sump is in the basement so I see a lot of bubbles. The rock keeps it from reaching the return pump. I have a skimmer in the sump and a pump that supplies the frag tank.

I my first sump, I used a 20 gal glass tank. I used small plastic container that wedged in the tank to act as a bubble trap. The skimmer was on one side and the return pump was on the other side of the "bubble trap". If you have room, set the refugium up in a different container. Raise it up so that it can gravity drain back into the sump and use a PH to supply water to it.

You could get some acrylic sheets at HD to add walls as well. For a bubble trap, they don't necessarily have to be siliconed but you need to keep sand away from your pumps.

More than one way to accomplish what you want.