sump / fuge design?

[lightngsvt]

IM not a total newb, I have had my 29 FO for about 1.5 years now. I recent ly purchased a 100G Clarity Plus tank and will be setting it up soon!

My question is regarding the sump / fuge. The tanks will be fish, LR and softies only with 4- T5's on an Ice Cap ballast. I plan to run 1.5 - 2" sand bed of Aragamax sugar sized sand. The sump / fuge I have designed would fit under my stand and be custom made for me out of acrylic.

I guess the question is do I need a fuge, or will a sump suffice? If so, is my design good, or can you provide ways to make the design simpler / better? The fuge woulod use 2- 1" bulkheads to drain to the sump. Im not sure how I would "block" them for getting plugged?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

to keep the 'fuge's drain bulkheads from getting plugged, put some baffles at the drain end of the 'fuge. Or put a sheet of eggcrate in there a few inches away from the bulkhead openings to keep macros away.

I'm confused by the number of pipes you have on your diagram. It looks like you have two drains from the tank, one of which is split between the 'fuge and sump and the other runs straight to the sump. Is that correct?

Either way, I'd suggest running all drains straight to the sump. Then, T off the return piping to feed the 'fuge. Drains are a battle to get tuned for silent operation, splitting one to feed the 'fuge is probably asking for trouble.

Also, I'd reverse the baffles in the middle of the sump, between the skimmer and return pump sections - "over under over" seems to work better than "under over under" for preventing bubbles reaching the return pump.

In addition, keep in mind that the water level in the skimmer section of the sump will be set by the height of the tallest "over" baffle leading into the return section. Make it tall enough to give you enough water for your skimmer, but short enough to keep the sump's water level low enough to provide space for extra water when the power goes out or return pump fails.

[lightngsvt]

Thanks for the help! Actually instead of "T"-ing the return line, could I just put a small pum pin the return section to pump back to the fuge? I guess that way I would also solve the potential overflow problems as well.

Ill change the baffles to "over-under-over".

Do you think I need to keep the provisions for the mechanical filtration (mainly carbon)?

If I were to build this myself out of a glass aquarium, what type of silicone "caulk" should I use to attach the baffles?

[z28cam]

For silicone you wanna use 100% silicone. Can be bought at Home Depot in the paint section.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You could definitely just use a second, smaller pump or powerhead. Especially if your return pump isn't too beefy. It's another piece of equipment to maintain and that might potentially fail though, but it's probably not a big deal from that aspect if you get something reliable.

I'd keep the provisions for carbon if you can build them in easily. Personally, I'm not a fan of mechanical filtration (in the form of forcing water through a filter medium) as it's a pain to clean or replace and will accumulate lots of crud if you don't keep up on it often enough.

But, being able to run carbon from time to time is great. If it's a hassle to build it in, you can always just toss a bag of carbon in a high flow area of the sump, lots of people take that route.

If you build it out of glass, you can either get "aquarium" silicone from a fish store, or just get generic stuff from a hardware store. The second route is obviously cheaper. Just make sure what you're getting is 100% silicone and does NOT contain mildew or mold inhibitors - many caulks made for bathrooms and sinks have nasty chemicals added, even if it says "100% silicone" on it - check elsewhere on the label to see if it says "not for aquarium use" or "contains mold inhibitors" etc. and you'll be fine.

GE makes this sort of silicone in black, bronze, white, and clear. I personally like the bronze (it's really just a drab brown color), IMHO it blends in better than black, white or clear.

[SVTour]

I use straight carbon in my old AquaClear that is located in the sump...couple things to think about if doing something like this. 1) with the lower water level, you may need to add some pvc to the intake to reach the water level. 2) with the lower level, you may want to add some acrylic to buffer the water falling out...it's rather loud if you don't.

I'm not sure the carbon is necessary; I figure that I had the power filter, might as well put it to use.

As for silicon, don't use the clear silicon you get at HD...it will turn yellow in the salt water (I know from experience). Go to a LFS and get some silicon specific for aquarium use...it will cost a little more, but works much better.

Finally, it's hard to tell from your pic, but make sure you have plenty of room for extra water in the event of a power loss.