I'm designing a DIY acrylic sump/refugium. I think the dimesnions are going to be 24Lx21Wx14H, with 4 baffles (under, over, over, under) with a 12x21 refugium in the middle. I want the refugium to be deep enough to have a 4 inch DSB, plus water column height. What is the minimum and preferred heights for the water column in your refugium?
I was thinking a 4 inch water column (thus 8 inch baffles on either side of the refugium), so that I would have about 9 gallons of air space above the refugium to handle backflow should I lose power in my pumps. Will 4 inches be enough?
What do you think? I can't go too tall with sides of the sump because the waste overflow from my skimmer is only 15 inches from the floor, and it needs to gravity feed over the side of the sump (if I use taller baffles, I'll need a taller sump for the same volume of overflow water). Plus I can only raise my skimmer about 4 inches before the top of it hits the bottom of my tank.
I was thinking a 4 inch water column (thus 8 inch baffles on either side of the refugium), so that I would have about 9 gallons of air space above the refugium to handle backflow should I lose power in my pumps. Will 4 inches be enough?
What do you think? I can't go too tall with sides of the sump because the waste overflow from my skimmer is only 15 inches from the floor, and it needs to gravity feed over the side of the sump (if I use taller baffles, I'll need a taller sump for the same volume of overflow water). Plus I can only raise my skimmer about 4 inches before the top of it hits the bottom of my tank.
