Sumps, Overflow Boxes, and Refugiums?

[themissinglynk]

Okay, so I am reading too much good information about all of these things, but don't know much about them, and want to get a good handle on them before I go too crazy modifying my setup.

What are the differences between Sump, Overflow, and Refugium?

How does the water get from the display tank to the sump? How back? What powers it? What keeps all of the water in the display tank from going down and overflowing the sump? What balances the in and out flows, so that you don't have pumps running dry?

What considerations need to be made for "switching" if I currently have a Rena Philstar canister filter?

Does the sump/refug/etc contain plants, just live rock, critters, etc?

And, well, what else do I need to know?

(very much appreciated!)

[depitch]

Good question!

I was a freshwater tank person for many years and used HOB or cannister filters.

A sump is a container for water drained from your tank from the overflow. The sump contains your filter equiptment, heater and other devices such as UV Sterilizer or Ca++/PO4++ reactors, etc.

The water drains by gravity to the sump and is pumped back to tank after filtration.

A refregium is a tank used to grow macro algae and copoepods it is a supplement as a biologic filter to reduce micro algae in the main tank.

IMO you can cycle a tank with the cannister filter but it is a nitrate factory. A sump with protein skimmer is the best option for saltwater tanks.

HTH

Doug

[talon4x4]

Check out this site for some great explanations on everything. Plus an animated example of how it all works.

http://www.melevsreef.com/

Animation of a working sump
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

[Geoff]

a refugium is a time/money sink and will not help the tank at all. that of course is my opinion.

i would gladly go on if you want, but a search for refugium and posts by Geoff will give you plenty of reading.

i prefer drilling a tank to using a siphon overflow. less worry.

G~