refugium question

[jakano]

hi all had a question i am already running a sump on my 40 gallon tank. i have an old tower wet dry with no media in it , a pump,a heater, and i will have a skimmer in there as well. that is all that is in the sump.it is a 20 gallon tank that is half full with water. could i go ahead and add sand and macroalgae and live rock to my sump and make it a refugium or should i have a second sump just for that stuff.

[Reefmedic79]

I suggest a second sump for a fuge. If you put it in the sump you have, you will probably get alot of sand and such in your return.

[Pescado guy]

Yeah, I agree. There is too much flow through a sump for a refugium. Plus, like fleetmarine said, you will get a lot of junk from your fuge in your main tank.

Kevin

[jakano]

i was afraid you would say that. my problem is i dont have any room for another sump under my tank. and i have an acrylic tank with a 2 inch lip all the way around it so i cant use a hang on refugium. any suggestions you could offer to help figure this one out i would love to hear.

[cellexjohn]

Is your sump a 20 long? Do you have room to partition some chambers in there. Here is a shot of what I did under my 29. The sump is a 15 long. I have a EuroReef 5-2 skimmer and heater in the left compartment and a Mag 9.5 in the right side. The fuge part is empty in the pic because I was in my 2nd week of curing the liverock.

15 gallon sump (http://zbend67.home.insightbb.com/images/29sumpusmsm.jpg)


Hope that helps
John

[Pescado guy]

Cellexjohn, that is a great setup! When you are tight on space, that would be a great plan. Do you have any extra lighting for your refugium now that you have more than LR? I have an acrylic Wet-Dry sump so I am not able to use your setup. What I will probably do is just get a ten gallon refugium sitting right next to my tank slightly higher than my sump so that I could put an overflow on it. Do you think this would be a good idea? Thanks

Kevin

[cellexjohn]

I am running a little quad bulb pc setup on it now. It's quite bright. I'll post a pic for ya when I get home from work today.

I think putting a tank above would be a great. You would be able to get the life from the refuge to the tank without damage that way also.

John

[Pescado guy]

Okay great. I'll look forward to seeing the pics! Thanks

Kevin

[ddawson]

Heres how I laid out my sump to sperate the fuge from the rest of the system.

http://users.rcn.com/d.dawson1/images/reef/sump1.JPG

[cellexjohn]

Here's a pic with the light on and 2 pieces of macro. 29 sump w/light (http://zbend67.home.insightbb.com/images/29sumplight.jpg)

John

[mcraige]

cellexjohn,

Are you baffles just pieces of glass held in with silicone? If so, is the glass tempered or anything special?

[cellexjohn]

Nothing special. 1/4" glass from the glass cutting shop. $3 a piece. Aquarium safe silicone. make sure you silicone the upper section first as you will want to make it a bit more secure being it is raised. I just made one for my 125 using a 33 long 48x12x13 and had the pieces cut a little lower because of the salt spray.

John