Dividing space for sump/ref.

[Mark420]

I have a 48g tank that I plan to use as a sump/refugium for my 105g main tank.It's 48"Lx12"Dx19"H I would like to know how much space should I use for the refugium and how much for sump area. I want to have a few baffles to cut down on bubble, What size should the baff. be? Should the first one have water go over or under? How high should the baff. be??I also need to have room for my berlin skim.,heater and probes
I don't know much when it comes to DIY aquarium stuff but am pretty handy and have a lil common sense

 

[Mac1]

Mark, you should use your common sense and just set everything up "dry-run", see how you like it ;-)

Kidding aside, the best thing is to just sit down in the middle of the floor with everything you plan on placing inside there. Tinker around with placement, location, idea's, etc. See what suits you, as the person who has to clean and care for all this, then try to see what it does to bubble problems, etc. Try looking at some of the commercial sumps available, see how they designed certain sections and why...
I've never fooled around with my sump too much after the initial setup, and been very happy with it. It's a 55 Gal tank that sits under my 90. I have two baffles in it, one in each corner. They basically wall off the back two corners, and create a trapezoid shape, with the front glass being the longer edge (full 48 inches), the back of the tank, is only about 36 inches across (and the baffles form the sides of the trapezoid). The two corner area's house my pumps (Eheim for the return, a Sen powers the line to my refugium which is on the Left side). I've placed heaters and other essentials back there without any troubles, as I've made raised platforms for the pumps:

That last one you may want to think about... as I learned it the hard way. Overflows inevitably plug, pumps will keep pumping, and I overflowed my tank, and drained the sump down to the bottom before. Since placing the pumps on a pedestal (old drinking glasses work great), (knock on wood), I haven't flooded, but have tested this mechanism during water changes... Water level drops in the sump, and runs the pump dry, before you've pulled all the water out. If you plan on keeping anything alive down there, they will appreciate your foresight.

- Mac

 

[Mark420]

Some more advice would be helpfull please

 

[Mark420]

thanks waterloomac.....You could make the post 5 pages long and it would be fine by me the more info the better

I think my plan is to have the ref. at one half of the sump tank with a full divider then use the other half for baffles, overflow in take, skimmer, heater etc. Thanks for the tip on having the baffle too close and having a hard time trying to silicone them. When you cut your baffles did you cut them so that they are tight against the tank walls and silicone or did you leave a small gap..1/8"-1/4" so that you can squeeze a "bead" of silicone inbetween the tank wall and baffle??

 

[waterloomarc]

I had the glass cut such that it fit snuggly between the glass. I chose to do it this way because I was too lazy to jerry-rig a clamp that would hold the glass in place while the silicone dried if the sheets were cut smaller

I siliconed on both sides of the baffles and they are fine. What I did in spaces where it was tight was squeeze the silicone on a cut up credit card and smoothed it on that way.


What do you mean by a full divider between the sump area and the refugium? How would water go from one to the other?

You think it's fun planning this stuff....wait til you get to acutally plumbing this stuff

 

[waterloomarc]

Although some say that you can get by with fewer, I prefer 3 baffles. 2 on the side of the overflow and one on the side of the pumps (middle being regugium area). The water flow under the first baffle as it enters the sump and eliminates most of the bubbles there. It then flows up and over the second baffle, where the remaining bubbles stay at the top of the tank. The third baffle on the other side of the tank mainly serves as a stop for the sand, and the water flows over it into the pump chamber.

You of course tailor things to your own set up. But I have definitely found that having water flow under the first baffle eliminates more bubbles. Oh, I leave about 1.5" inches for the water to flow under. For the baffles that the water flows over you should size these based on where you want to keep the water level in the sump and cut them that tall. They should be just below the water level.

As for how much space to devote to refugia, this depends on how much equipment you need to house. The more equip. in the sump, the less space available to the refugium. Be sure to allow for the possible addition of other pumps and ease of cleaning. That said, I have about a third of mine cut of for internal pump and skimmer etc. and the other 2/3 for refugia and overflow baffling.

I hope this helps, sorry for the length.

-Marc

 

[waterloomarc]

One more thing, don't underestimate what a pain it is to silicone those baffles in if you put them reasonably close together

 

[Mark420]

Well what i meant by full divider is that... The sump/refugium divider will be "say" 15"-16" and the tank is 19" tall, the inlet water come in form the top from the main tank overflow and the ref. oulet will either A:Spill over the divider wall and into the "sump" compartment (but if I do it like this then some of the "overboard critters" might get sucked up by the protien skimmer

) OR B: Inlet from the top again and the refugium overflow will leave the ref. through a small bulk head fitting inorder to bypass the sump area withe the skimmer and will spill out in the last section of the sump were the return pump will pick it up and reurn it to the main tank.
What do you think of this type setup???

 

[GLD]

I am building a sump that will have baffles similar to those described by Waterloomarc above. My question is this. Since I wish to use an external pump rather than a submersible, how far off bottom should I drill the outlet hole into the side of the sump. the last baffle that seperates the outlet chamber from the upstream portion of the sump will be about 15" tall. Also, what diameter hole would you suggest?