sump question on 90 gal

[saltwatersmac]

I am building a larger stand for my 90 gal so it will have room for a sump and refuge. I am using a 15 gal for the fuge that will gravity feed back to sump. The sump I am planning on will just be two chambers, one will hold a future skimmer then bubble trap and finally the return. I was thinking of using a 20 gal high that I already have for the sump. I plan on keeping the water level around 9 inches deep. Will this be enough room to allow for extra water from a power outage or will this tank be too small for a sump? TIA

Stephen

 

[midiman]

Why not add a refugium to that sump?

I'm using a 10 gallon sump for a 30 gallon tank. My partitions are 8" high in a 12" tall tank, and the water in the sump is about 10" deep. The water level in my tank is about 1 1/4" below the overflow point onto my floor.

There's plenty of room in my sump for power out - I've tested it many times.

Good luck!!!

 

[fishfreek]

Sounds good to me. I would question the depth of the water in the sump. There are ways to limit the amount of backflow when power fails like installing a single direction flow valve on the return. If your refuge syphons down to your sump then you want to also limit the amount of backflow from the sump when power outage occurs.

 

[saltwatersmac]

I will actually have more room in the stand than I plan on using now. I just have the two aquariums already. I wanted a fuge somewhere close to 20% tank capacity. I believe I read somewhere that is a good rule of thumb? The guy at the LFS is drilling the 15 for a drain as high as possible. I shouldn't get over 2 gals of water from the fuge. The idea of 9" water level is for an ASM G3 skimmer I hope to get later. I have room to block up the skimmer if it is ok to raise the water level in the sump. Any idea how high I can keep the water level? Thanks I will get a check valve in the return.

Thanks midiman and fishfreek for your advice!

Stephen