New DIY Sump/Fuge... any thoughts?/help please! =o)

[torosax]

Hey guys, I'm new to this site and thought I'd see if I could get any opinions/help...

I started working up plans a couple years ago to switch from my Fluval 405 to a sump/refugium.. of course I lost my job and plans got put on hold for a while.. So yesterday I restarted my research and drawing things up... Almost everything is a DIY.. Just curious to see what you guys think of this since pretty much everyone has more experience with this stuff than I do lol...

Starting with two large Specimen containers to make an overflow box.. gonna use (2) 1" clear plastic tubing pieces to bring water into the sump, which will be in the cabinet under my tank (about 4' from the top of the tank). the in-tank specs I came up with are all shown on the attached picture..

Going to put in a 500gph return pump also.

Eventually I'd like to buy a decent skimmer but since I'm pretty broke still, do you think this old thing I found would work for a while?

Also, any suggestions on what to do with it/how it would work assuming I can make do with it for a while..? I'm not Really sure how to even use something like this.. I had a seaclone in my old 29 gallon tank but that just required me to plug it in lol..

One other thing.. I'm hoping that someone else has had this issue and can help out.. The tank I'm using as my sump/fuge is a 30 Gal. so 36" L x 12 1/2" W x 16 3/4" H and the tank/stand on the main display are both All-Glass aquarium brand(90 gal). There is no way I can get the sump/fuge into the cabinet because there is a center support where the cabinet doors meet.. do you think it would be possible to remove that center post so that I can get my sump in there? Here are a few picture taken last night of the stand..

Any help/insight you guys could give would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Betillo

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

First, on your sump design. If it were me, I'd combine the first chamber & the skimmer chamber. No point in having those separate. So make the first chamber larger to accommodate the in-flow of water from the DT and the skimmer. This is also the chamber I have my heaters in.

Next chamber would be the fuge, then the bubble trap, and finally the return section.

Not that your system wouldn't work, I think this is more effective. The skimmer is going to create a LOT of microbubbles in the water, so the further it is from the return section the more opportunity for the bubbles to hit the surface and go away.

For that skimmer, anything's better than nothing, but I don't know anything about that one, so I can't really help you out there.

For getting the sump under the stand, that might be tricky. Definately do not remove that center vertical support unless you replace it with some other support method while you do the installation. I can't find the exact page right now, but over on melevsreef.com there used to be an installation article that showed someone doing this successfully. There's also a bunch of very nice sump designs there you could browse.

 

[neilanh]

Ok, here's the link that shows them installing a sump that made them have to take out the vertical support. Use at your own risk

Marc's Super Sump

 

[torosax]

Thanks a lot!! I'll definitely look into those ideas! My original thought with putting the skimmer in the last compartment was to ensure that the cheato I'm gonna have in the fuge section got enough of the nutrients.. but then in rethinking that, I doubt that even with the skimmer coming before that it'd be deprived of nutrients..

Thanks again,
Betillo