Post your best sump/refuge pics!!!

[mrrrkva]

Getting ready to redo a sump. It is a 75 gallon acrylic sump that is 48" by 19" I have a my reef 2 skimmer that I would like to put in this. Wanted to make a refuge and a sump in one. Looked at lots of diagrams, and they seem to conflict.
Do I have this right???
Refuge goes first right??? so it gets lower water flow? I thought about dividing it in thirds.
1)1st16" refuge and 1/3 of the tank return,
2)2nd 16" skimmer, the other 2/3 tank return and heater
3) and last 16" 3 baffles (1st and last baffle/divider going from BOTTOM to top of refuge and the middle one going from TOP to 4 inches from bottom) and than the external pump. Do I have this right???

 

[tinyreef]

i'm a believer in Adey's theory that centrifugal pumps destroy much of the micro, nano, and regular plankton necessary for a true representative reef ecosystem. from that stance, i don't believe the refugium should be in a position where its contents have to be pumped back into the tank but should be instead gravity fed back into the tank. (above the tank vs. below)

the sump can be anywhere (basically) because it's a derivative of breaking the surface tension of the water for gas exchange and surface skimming (not to be confused with protein skimming). your plans are fine for the sump but i wouldn't do the refugium underneath, just my $0.02

 

[Mouse]

Dead or Alive your coming with me. I really dont think the corals are going to notice if their Phyto's and Zooz have been through a pump first. But the best thing to do is get a bigger pump and reduce the throttle, that way youll have less sheer. And while pumps wont harm Zoo's and Phyto's skimmers certainly will, so id put the Fuge after the skimmer for sure.

 

[SPC]

My sump and refugium (75 gallon) are all in one. The skimmer and heater are on one side and the ref on the other. I have mine split down the middle long ways this way no micro bubbles get back to the tank. As far as the pump killing the Phyto's etc... there are different schools of thought on this subject. I will say that I placed 4 banggai babies in my refugium and all 4 went back through the pump and ended back up in the tank with no apparent injuries. And then as Mouse stated the corals are not mobile so it dosen't matter if their food is alive or not. And finally there is the group that dosen't feel we can supply enough Phyto's and Zooz to a tank to make much difference anyway, its more to make us feel like we are doing the right thing :wink: .
Steve

 

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

So who is gonna post a pic?

 

[Mouse]

And finally there is the group that dosen't feel we can supply enough Phyto's and Zooz to a tank to make much difference anyway, its more to make us feel like we are doing the right thing .

But i feel in this instance they are just lacking the right refugeum husbandary. If i had a Fuge with about 3-4 Bunny snails humping away, a veritable orgy of mysids and a myriad of sexual tomfoolery from the smaller fauna and infauna i think you could actually feed a huge ammount. Especially in the case of the bunny snails, i think you could get quite a subtantial ammount of food just from one pair.

 

[max spl]

well, here is my sump/refugium for my 160Gallon reef:

and this is for my new 150 gallon FO:

 

[npaden]

Here is an old pic of the sump/refugium on my tank. The sump/refuguium is a standard 135 with some extra compartments for baffles & the refugium. The skimmer draws from the very far left of the sump where the drains from the tank go so I'm not skimming what just came out of the refugium.

As far as centrifugal pumps killing everything coming out of the refugium, I added my detrivore kit to the refugium and it is amazing how much life I now have in the tank. I've even had some baby banggai cardinals make the trip up from the refugium into the tank and then into one of the overflow boxes without any ill effects.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[reefland]

I've since moved the Mak4 to a closed loop.

 

[syau]

View my sump in http://www.elbbs.org/gallery/album02.

 

[Jeff Hood]

http://www.cableone.net/jkhood/Sump_room.JPG

 

[reefland]

damn... talk about sumps.

 

[danmhippo]

My sump is a mess, I haven't scraped algae on the sump wall for decades. Even I can't see through the glass. But here is a pic of my mangrove in the sump. Talk about slow growth, this one in pic is with me for about an year. If anyone out there are still thinking of using mangrove for nutrient export.........Don't.

This is the same mangrove 6 months ago

 

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

npaden: right on about the comment concerning the pumps killing life, I for one also believe thats a load of bull. I have seen quite a few things go down the overflow and back up through the pump without any ill effect that I could see. In fact a few rock anemones recently took the trip from the sump up to the main tank showing me who was boss after putting them in the sump refugium. THey didnt like it down there at all. 8O

 

[esmithiii]

Here are the instructions on how to build an acrylic sump. Plans are in PowerPoint, instructions on how to build it are in MS Word. Right click on the links below and select "save target as" do download. Simply clicking the link should display the file in your brower.

http://erniesmith.no-ip.com/public/Erni ... c/Sump.ppt

http://erniesmith.no-ip.com/public/Erni ... ctions.doc