What is the purpose of a sump?

[ace1uno_00]

I don't understand.
I want to build my own but, how big should i go?
It's going to be used with a 90 gallon tank.
I want to have a refugium but, what's it for? to grow algae or something?
how big should the refugium be?
where should the skimmer go?
should i build a sperate place for the skimmer and refuge?
what about filtration. is the sump the filter?
or should i run a filter with the sump?
My brain hurts.

 

[Crawling68]

Check out www.melevsreef.com , it will tell you all you want to know.

 

[ellisz]

A sump is a place to keep equipment you don't want to see in the display and it allows you to have more water volume which is always good. It can be as big as you want. Some make it as big that will fit under the tank in the stand. On my 75 gal, I started with a 20 gal, then went to a 30+ and now I have a 75 gal sump

A refugium is typically for plants but is basically a low flow area that has sand and/or rock, plants and is lighted. The plants, rock and sand add for filtration and in some instances, the 'fuge adds more water volume. Bigger the better. A lot of people incorparate the fuge as a small part of the sump.


I would put the skimmer in the sump. You don't have to separtate the skimmer, etc but you can. Depending on the size of the sump, separate sections might be needed to prevent micro-bubbles.

Filtatrion is the LR, LS and/or refugium. The sump just adds water volume. You can add rock in your sump for added filtration though.

There are a ton of designs out there so do a search on here or on google and you are likely to run into some pics. I used to browse through the photogallery when I was looking for something too

HTH

 

[ace1uno_00]

thank you so so much. for my 90 gallon tank i want to build a 45 maybe 50 gal. sump.
With a 20 gallon 'fuge section and place lr and ls and have a ton of snails in there. what do you think?

 

[seafan]

50 gallon sump. If you can do it, go for it. But a smaller sump/refugium would suffice. Oh also you can put a DSB in the refugium to reduce nitrates.

 

[ellisz]

Sounds good. Be careful with snails. I would use small ones like nassarius. Don't want any to wander and block a drain or plug a pump.

 

[ace1uno_00]

ohh, didnt think of that. thanks.
i will post pictures up in the DIY section when i start my build of the sump.