Sump / Refugium

[Cap'n]

I have a 20gal tank that I am going to use as a sump and refugium. I have been looking at plans on the net - far too complicated for my liking. What are the minimum requirements that I need to have for an efficient filter and macro algae producer?

[Cap'n]

Attached is a design I found that looks pretty good to me. Glue in a couple or three pieces of acrylic, add some substrate, rock, algae and voila! What have the other DIY'ers made?

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/tents3/diagram.jpg

[Richer]

What I've got is not the most complicated thing in the world, but it seems to work just fine.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Sumpshot1.jpg

I figure there's probably about 600gph going through that sump/refuge

-Richer

[Cap'n]

What do you have there, 2 baffles at the right? One for the inflow of water to go under and another to seperate refuge and set water level? Looks like you don't have a sand bed, is that so you can siphon out the sediment?

Thanks for the pic, helps to see real-life applications.

[Richer]

I'll draw up a rough diagram when I come home from work if you want it.

There are three baffles on the right side of the tank. The first baffle (the farthest right) is set to the bottom and is a bit higher than the rest of the baffles, because I run my HOB skimmer in that area. The one after that is set to the top, the last one is set to the bottom. So when the water enters the sump, it goes over the first baffle, under the second, and over the last one. After these baffles, the water goes through the refugium area. This area only has leftover baserock and chaetomorpha, because like you thought, its so I can easily siphon out the sediment (I'm running a bare bottom tank). There is a baffle just before the return pump, just to seperate the pump from the refugium. Not the most efficient design, but it works and its simple.

HTH
-Richer

[mark]

This guy's a Canreefer.

Never actually seen the tank but from the pictures, it's the type of refugium I would design for http://members.shaw.ca/reefs/dez/