need to raise my water level in my refugium, but don't know

[whusband]

below is a pic of my water flows from my sump to my refugium. as you can see, i can't raise the level in the refugium much higher w/o the sump overflowing in a power outage. the sump is already raised up on 2 phone books, and can't go any higher b/c of the skimmer. any ideas on how i can raise the water level in the refugium so it will be high enough for some caulerpa? the refugium in 17" high

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: huz ]</p>

 

[DEADFISH1]

I've got the same problem, but not as bad, the only way I know to fix mine is to lower the top off float valve so there's less water in the sump to make room for the refugium overflow when the pump is off, or buy a bigger sump.

 

[DEADFISH1]

oh wait, after looking at your photo, doe, yours is set up different from mine, I think, my refugeum is flowing into my sump, yours is opposite, right?
can you reverse it?

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: DEADFISH ]</p>

 

[whusband]

yeah it is the opposite. my sump is a sealife systems wet/dry w/ the bio balls pulled out. my overflow is attached to a filter box that i put a blue pad in, so i can't reverse the flow w/o a lot of trouble, and i wouldn't want stray pods to have to pass through the protein skimmer anyway

 

[DEADFISH1]

well, the way I have it is like this:
I split off the line from the overflow box, the split line to the refugeum has an adjustable PVC valve from Home Depot, I adjust the flow rate to the refugeum with that, I then have a PVC line coming from the refugeum to the sump, I didn't drill a hole in the sump, the PVC from the refugeum is just hanging over the edge of the sump, if I adjust the flow rate to the refugeum to high the sump will overflow when the pump is off, I have a sealife sump also.
I still have pods in the main tank, as to how many perish from the skimmer, who knows.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
There are several ways you can raise the water level, but none of them is easily accomplished.

From the pic, it looks like the left is the sump, and the water flows to the refugium on the right via a U-pipe (siphon). Let me know if I misunderstood your picture.

The empty space in the sump and refugium (the air above the water level) has to be greater than the "extra" volume in your tank. So when power fails, the sump and the refugium can hold the extra volume. No matter what you do, you are restricted by this empty space, extra water "inequality."

Now you want to raise the water level, or decrease the empty space without overflowing. One way to do it is to decrease the extra volume in your tank. To do this route, you will have to use a smaller pump, or a larger/faster overflow.

Another way is to shift the empty space around. A common way to do that is to add partition in the refugium to dam up the water on one side of it.

 

[whusband]

thanks for the info. i like the idea of the partition. i have one in there now to keep substrate out of the return pump, but it's only 5" high. i bet i could just add another one on top and raise it that way. thx