Vance164 Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 (edited) Hello everyone I am fairly new here and this will be my first post other than my intro. I have been lurking here for about a month now and also have been researching all over the interwebs to try and get a good game plan to start my first reef tank in around November. So that brings me to my questions about sump design. I had a game plan of building it so I would enter through filter socks and then onto the skimmer chamber to refugium chamber to return chamber. but then I ran into conflicting points that you want water to go straight into your refugium before being skimmed and others saying it makes no difference and also people saying to have the fuge and skimmer on opposite sides and the return in the center so both overflow into the return chamber. I am curious on how any of you have set yours up or have any recommendations. I would like for my refugium to hopefully house pods. also do you have recommendations on what to run on the refugium other than chaeto? (sand, rock, marine pure, miracle mud, bare?) Please let me know any info you guys have for a complete newbie to this and I'm excited to hear your responses!! - Thanks in advance Vance Edited July 23, 2016 by Vance164 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I think this is a subject that will have a whole lot of opinions. And to be honest I think you do what makes you happy in the end. I run a 29 gallon fuge in a 40 breeder. I started it with a filter sock and also a curve 5 skimmer. Now it has no filter sock and no skimmer. Sump is a simple design with 1 big section and a return section only. I do have some sand and rock in it and also about 5 types of macro maybe more. Certain macro has taken over and will probably not use it again on future builds. There are also zoas and a fish in the sump and all is lit with a par bulb from home depot running 24/7. Good luck on your decision and post up what you end up with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vance164 Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 Thank you I really like the idea of flow through opposed to both flowing to the center. But am really curious if I actually need to have one overflow specific to the refugium area. Or if filtering all through the sock then skimmer would be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joestotz Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I have seen spectras sump and it is very effective it keeps his water crystal clear. And assuming how happy his corals are doing and he has a lot of them packed in that tank I would say it's working great. With that said I run an acrylic sump custom made from soutas (no longer in the biz) it has a 7" filter sock chamber a skimmer chamber and a built in refugium/return area. I chose not to use the refugium area for macro so it didn't get sucked into my return pump. Also I don't want it causing havoc on my ATO. So I made a baffle out of egg crate to house all the macro and it's working out great. So it's possible to have success with either type and it depends on what you really want. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanareef Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 (edited) Just stay with the flow thru, easier. The other way you would have to split your overflow to two different corners then return in the middle, I have built both but the flow thru is the simplest and for the baffle after the fuge you can put teeth in it to hold back the macro K.I.S.S. Edited July 23, 2016 by wanareef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisQ Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 First, welcome to the club! Here's how i'm running my current sump with a Bean Animal overflow design, from the far right, full siphon, emergency drain then the open channel. There is a small Maxijet 1200 in the return section that circulates water for the far left chamber that i tumble chaeto in. The water is then returned to the baffles I suppose this small chamber could also be used for a deep sand bed or maybe a Marinepure block. I choose to run filter socks because i'd rather clean 4-5 socks then empty all the rock from my sump and siphon out all the built up detritus, my frag tank also drains into this chamber so when the socks are not being used it builds up fast. The chaeto grows and nothing floods in a power outage, so i'm happy for now but i'm sure there are much better ways to run this that i don't know about yet so hopefully we both learn something from this great community we have here. Again, welcome to the club and good luck with your system! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vance164 Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 First, welcome to the club! Here's how i'm running my current sump with a Bean Animal overflow design, from the far right, full siphon, emergency drain then the open channel. There is a small Maxijet 1200 in the return section that circulates water for the far left chamber that i tumble chaeto in. The water is then returned to the baffles I suppose this small chamber could also be used for a deep sand bed or maybe a Marinepure block. I choose to run filter socks because i'd rather clean 4-5 socks then empty all the rock from my sump and siphon out all the built up detritus, my frag tank also drains into this chamber so when the socks are not being used it builds up fast. The chaeto grows and nothing floods in a power outage, so i'm happy for now but i'm sure there are much better ways to run this that i don't know about yet so hopefully we both learn something from this great community we have here. Again, welcome to the club and good luck with your system! Thank you I'm glad to be here in fact at the expo today I bought my wife's and I's membership. So your just pumping water in from the return chamber and then letting. It overflow back in? I plan on running socks seems easy enough to have 4 or 6 and just to change them out every day or few days. I have seen spectras sump and it is very effective it keeps his water crystal clear. And assuming how happy his corals are doing and he has a lot of them packed in that tank I would say it's working great. With that said I run an acrylic sump custom made from soutas (no longer in the biz) it has a 7" filter sock chamber a skimmer chamber and a built in refugium/return area. I chose not to use the refugium area for macro so it didn't get sucked into my return pump. Also I don't want it causing havoc on my ATO. So I made a baffle out of egg crate to house all the macro and it's working out great. So it's possible to have success with either type and it depends on what you really want. Good luck! Have any pictures of your setup? I just fill with both a skimmer and refugium you get the best of both worlds in nutrient control and a pod population. But really want to know if I need to t-off or if the skimmer leaves enough nutrients to feed the macro. Thanks for the input! Just stay with the flow thru, easier. The other way you would have to split your overflow to two different corners then return in the middle, I have built both but the flow thru is the simplest and for the baffle after the fuge you can put teeth in it to hold back the macro I'm using glass to build the sump as what it has if I go flow through is there any other way to stop the macro I will have a bubble traps before the return also I'm using a 55gal so I feel I will have plenty of length to set everything up. With the flow thru did you notice any difference in the refugium area? Thank you everyone so much for the replies and look forward to learning so much more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunpeal Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 "So that brings me to my questions about sump design. I had a game plan of building it so I would enter through filter socks and then onto the skimmer chamber to refugium chamber to return chamber. but then I ran into conflicting points that you want water to go straight into your refugium before being skimmed...." Id run skimmer first if for no other reason than keeping loose algae from getting stuck in my skimmer pump and shutting it down until I notice. I've ran a few different types of refugiums. My favorite was a display one with mangroves and a 250w halide over it. They were TREES not cute plants after a while. Current setup is an algae turf scrubber (ats). New build is using the refugium space for a frag area with marine pure blocks under the rack and using carbon dosing and gfo for nutrients the skimmer doesn't take care of on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vance164 Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 Ok so I finally got a skimmer and drilled out the holes for my filter socks I'm confused on what I should shoot for for baffle height the skimmer needs to be between 7 and 9.5" but I have 20 inches of height I hate to loose that much volume should I raise the skimmer up so I could have more water volume throughout for the refugium? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joestotz Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 They make skimmer stands that look nice you can order. I made mine from egg crate with pvc legs. I've seen people use bricks I'm not sure I would put them in my sump but they didn't seem to have any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vance164 Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 Could you use the marine pure blocks under the skimmer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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