Critique my sump idea

[Fish Dude32]

This is my plan for my sump. All advice is appreciated.

[OneDummHikk]

Instead of the drain pipe from the fuge to the skimmer section, why not just have it run over the baffle instead?

[Fish Dude32]

I wanted to completly cycle water through it and if it went over the baffel, the water would just kinda move in circles. But this is just my logic and it could be flawed.

[OneDummHikk]

With the water going through a smaller area (the pipe) instead of across a baffle, you will find that the water speed at the pipe will be faster and tend to want to pull the very thing you want the macro to process through the drain and create more of a circular pattern than just a baffle will.

[Fish Dude32]

So have the flow go over the baffel instead of the over-flow? Do I still divert from the tank overflow?

[OneDummHikk]

I would leave it diverted as you have it. That lets you control the flowrate through the fuge while not limiting what comes through the drain. I just wouldn't use a second drain from the fuge, just let it run over the baffle there and drain into the skimmer compartment.

[Jadinop]

Splitting the drain will be a problem. I had the sump/refuge for my 75 setup that exact same way and I ran into a few problems. First off the valve going to the refuge is not necessary. Actually, it is quite risky to completely valve your drain plumbing and can lead to tank overflows. You only need the bottom valve and by closing/opening it you will control how much water is sent to the refuge. I was suprised to learn from my setup that with the bottom drain valve fully open there was no water flowing to the refuge. Gravity wins out completely and you must close the valve quite a bit to get water flowing steadily to the refuge.

This leads to the second problem which is putting a valve on a drain. Mine had to be tweaked daily to keep the water flow even to the refuge. Buildup in the pipe, water temp and even certain additives will change the flow enough to mess up your levels. I don't know why but in my 75 with that drain setup whenever I dosed Selcon my refuge would nearly overflow.

A better solution would be run the drain directly to the sump and then use a small pump to supply a constant water flow to your refuge. Also, as ODH (Randy) stated, just flowing over the baffle will work out better. The water will skim evenly off the top and there is less risk of it clogging and overflowing. I have a pipe for a drain on my current refuge and I have to clean the strainer off every few days or the water level rises.

[Fish Dude32]

Ok thanks for your help Randy

[Fish Dude32]

[OneDummHikk]

Read Jadinops post. I didn't pay attention to the valves. Simply drain it straight into the fuge or use a pump to pump water into the fuge while having the tank drain into the skimmer area.

[ttray14]

If you are going to split the drain; I would have one drain going into each end of your sump. One end would have the fuge in it and the other would have the skimmer and any other equipment in it. The middle would be your return. Every chamber would have to be baffled of course. I have a 150G and I this is the way I am going to setup my sump in a few months.

[skilletfan jtm]

but would the pods in the first part die if they go in the skimmer

[OneDummHikk]

The water from the fuge doesn't go through the skimmer. But the skimmer won't hurt them unless it suffocated them from too much air. And going through the return pump won't hurt the pods either.