What problems with this configuration ??

[Jeff]

I just bought a 180 and I was thinking that it would be cool to have my refugium visible all the time. I was thinking that the stand would have three doors and I would just remove one door were the refugium was. However, once I got my stand It had four doors and the two in the center have no middle brace so I came up with this idea.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=1475095I

didn't draw it but the refugium would drain in the back left corner through bulk heads and hosing into the sump. What potential problems do you see with this set up? Oh the pump uses 1" piping and I was thinking that I would use 1.5 or 2" and then reduce it at the pump.

 

[mojoreef]

Ok Jeff I am a little lost. The pic is this the design of the refugium and sump or just the sump and then the refugium will be an add??


Mike

 

[Jeff]

Sorry, it is confusing. The sump will be a separate tank on the left. This will have a water level of under 10". The refugium tank on the right will drain into the sump, though I did not draw the bulk heads and tubing. Both the sump and refugium are shown top down view inside the stand. The reason why I was thinking of doing this weird design is because it would give me the largest unobstructed view of the refugium.

 

[mojoreef]

OK didnt thnk abut the top down view, lol.
Its hard to tell exactly whats going on, but I think I get the concept. They main thing to remember is to make sure the refugium is elevated above the sump so that it can gravity feed into it. Make sure the BH drain is much larger then the pumps GPH rating. Tis way you wont get more going in then you get going out. Prior to the output of the refugium make sure you protect it with some kind of fence (say like eggcrate) that way a big wad of macro algae wont block the drain. And lastly make sure the sump can handle the compacity of the refugium for the ammount of water that will drain if the power goes out.


Other then that should look good.


Mike

 

[Jeff]

Thanks for the input. I was thinking of making pvc screens like what I have seen on the Lifereef refugiums to keep the debris out. I'll be using a small return pump, iwaki 30, and the Tunze streams as a closed loop. I figure that the sump will be able to hold an extra 17 gallons in a power outage, so hopefully that should be enough.