opinions on my sump please

Hi,

I'm VERY slowly getting everything ready for first real reef tank.
was given this sump as an xmas present about 2 years ago and want to get a few opinions on it as i think i'm getting closer to finally being able to run some water through it and my 4ft tank.



possible issues i see
- baffles are same hight? should I maybe re-glue the second one a bit higher?
- is the sand bed section meant to act like a fuge? will it?

what else is needed?
-should i put some LR in the return pump section?
-should i add an refugium to the mix?

thanks for any help

 

I would use the pre-filter section for Bio-Media (Bio-Balls?). I would use the section where you currently have your skimmer, for your refugium. Where you marked "sand bed", I would place a sponge made specifically for polishing the water and where you marked "return pump", I would make that my sump and place your return pump and your skimmer in this area. IMHO.

 

thanks for the quick reply
wow, thats a lot more change than i was expecting.

from what i understand the coral rubble will act as the bio media and told it works out better than the balls by having more surface area for bacteria? (could be completely wrong here?).

have never heard of a water polishing sponge, but will try read up on them.

i was also under the impression that having the skimmer after the refugium kills the benificial life from the fuge, and that having it in-line like that would give it way to high a flow rate to work properly anyway?
i was thinking of maybe adding an external refugium later on if i'll have trouble without one

looks like i've got some more reading up to do

 

to me, it looks like what you have shown in the pic would work just fine.

 

thanks, reassurance is as good as advice

 

Id suggest the protein skimmer before the refugium because the skimmer wont get all the nutrients that can get to the refugium for the pod to consume. But with the baffle so hi my concern is the water height for the skimmer.

 

My concern with the baffles would be do you have enough room for drain back when the return shuts off. Also with an in sump skimmer you would not want it in the return section because you want a constrain water level no? So where its at should be good.

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i guess if the water is too high for the skimmer to function i could put it on a box or something, but yeah the possibility of overflow could be an issue. will make sure i do a few tests for that. if it looks hopeless might have to get the first baffle cut down or drilled a few times
will that small section of sand bed really work like a fuge?
i was thinking a seperate smaller tank for that might be better? still need to do a bit more reading on them.

keep finding more things i need, slowing the build down:

thanks

 

my new stand is almost done and the next thing to work out will probably be the plumbing.
have done up a quick sketch to see if anyone wants to give some guidance ;D



basically
-2 overflows incase one gets blocked
-pipe up from bulkheads so water level can be closer to top of tank. does anyone else know how this will go? any problems?
-tee on overflow after bulkhead, not sure why but saw it used somewhere here i think.
-tees off horizontal to a custom fuge about 10"w x 15"l x 15"h (maybe. will this size be ok?)
-thinking all overflows about 1" (or 25mm if youre down with metric )
-return and fuge feed 3/4" (20mm)
-i know theres probably way too many ball valves but i thought they might be good for isolating things if anything needs changing

is there anything else that would need to be plumbed in later on that i dont know about?

the only things i can think of would be dosing pumps and a chiller, but i assumed they would run their own plumbing circuits. although i've never really seen either lol.

thanks again

 

I like the 2 tank idea...thought about doing that to my 84 gal, but didn't have room under the stand for it. Will def be watching to see how it works out for you. Definitely take your time, the more you can work out ahead of time, the better off you will be in the long run.