Question on building a refuge.

[jojo22]

I am diy/retrofiting an old sump (wet dry) into a refuge for my 10 gal. I am planing to move 350-500 gph. With my design I need to drill through some partitions to make the water move how I want. Will 50 3/8 inch holes handle this kind of movement or will I need to drill som more.

[lReef lKeeper]

if not it should create enough current to make the water go where you want it to. if it doesn't work you can always drill more. i would start out with 25 holes, then 35, then 50. you can drill to few but to many would probably scrap the whole idea.

[jojo22]

I already drilled 50 on one side but in my application I don't see how too mant would be a problem. they are up top so if anything I'll drop the water level and not use them all. To sum up I want high volume but low current.

[lReef lKeeper]

then it sounds your plan is a good one for the high volume/low current idea. another way to slow down the current is adding LR to the fuge. i have about 20lbs is mine and i am running about 625gal/hour through mine. it also has a few small anthelia colonies, and zoa frags in it to grow out some before hitting the main tank.

[jojo22]

I'll post some pics tommorow. Then maby you and good old davejnz can give me some pointers this is my first try at any out of the tank filtration.

[lReef lKeeper]

i will be glad to help, and i think David wont mind either.

[jojo22]

Ok so I didn't get pics but heres the idea. The refuge has 3 sections, separated by lexan from top to bottom. Section one will be used to house my skimmer and a UV filter and some live rock, there will be holes in the divider at about 5.5 inches up which will push the water across the top of the deep sand bed in section two. section two will will also be a growing field for macros and zenia to export nutrients and the dsb will hopefully help with a bigger pod population. At the top of the divider between sections two and three will be more holes. I hope by pushing the water up like this I will lose any micro bubbles. Section three will house a return pump at the bottom and as much LR and LR rubble as I can possibly cram in there.


thanks for any help/comments,

Jojo

[jojo22]

Little help??? Anyone??? Please???

[lReef lKeeper]

whats up man ??

[jojo22]

Do you see any fatal flaws in the description above or should I be good to go??

[lReef lKeeper]

sounds like it will work but why not just add more baffles instead of drilling all those holes ?? here is my sump and it took me all of 20 minutes to build. the flow rate is high but the current is low enough to let some frags do a little extra growing before they get to the main tank ...

2213

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sorry it took so long ... had to take new pics
sorry the last pic is so blurry looking, it is coralline growning on the glass.

[jojo22]

I thought about that but I have no exp. with lexan, and the tank is already pretty small I don't want to waste any space.

[lReef lKeeper]

let me know how it turns out and maybe some pics.

[dakar]

How big is your sump/refuge going to be for total volume? Any addition to the total volume is always helpfull, though pushing too much water thru too small a refuge/sump can result in microbubbles being dumped back into the display without bubble traps set right. Learned that the fun way as well with my nano tank.

[jojo22]

Refuge is about 20 gal give or take. It was a DIY one of the guys at the LFS made but he ended up makeing a bigger one as his tank is much larger than mine. What do you suggest as far as flow rate???

[dakar]

500gph through a 20g tank should be just fine for bubble control.... I found that 600+ through a 10g sump/fuge was pushing the limits for allowing air bubbles to escape before being picked up by the return pump.

There has been some debate of the max speed water should flow through a refugium to allow macros and the like to help take up nutrients and allow detritus to settle... I haven't found any real difference either way fast or slow yet, so long as it's not picking up sand or throwing bubbles it works for me :)

[lReef lKeeper]

yes Dave, i would say that that is a little overboard. i have about 625-650 going through my 55 reef. that is a lot of flow you had in a 10gal.