Thinking of starting SW

MiamiLeos

Looks good! I wanna play! Looked like too much fun not to make one of my own sump plans lol

wake49

Looks good you two!

Tazman

Add some Culpera as well in the sump along with the Chaeto, more macro algae, more they will absorb the excess nitrates

on the sump design, one thing I would consider doing though is split the return line to the fuge and not the intake line. That way you are returning "cleaned" water back into the sump and not having dirty water coming in from the overflow.

I recently removed my filter sock from my sump as I found it to be getting too dirty for my liking and cleaning it way too often. I did have some issues in my tank and as they seem to be sorted I will perhaps return it. Keep an eye on it and dont allow it to become to dirty.

bigehugedome

So im not 100% sure i follow. Are you pretty much saying do what MiamiLeos did? That design was a little to crazy for me at first, I was sure my design was all wrong, but please help me make adjustments!

Thanks everyone!

MiamiLeos

I'm only doing this design because the fuge is really important to me. I want to produce a lot of pods and macro algae because eventually I would like to have a manderin in the tank and they need the pods. Lots of people do the sump like your lay out! Only reason I have mine the way it is is because I dont want "skimmed" water going in/out of the fuge, making it harder to grow pods and algae.

bigehugedome

OK that makes sense, thanks. If that way is OK for me to, or if Taz can elaborate a bit, ill change plans, but my mind could only start with the simple option.

How are you making your sump. Im reading all sorts of different things im creating my own confusion. Im going to be using a glass tank. So it seems like the best thing to do is use glass baffles, as its hard to bond acrylic to glass. There is also a concern with acrylic expanding and breaking the glass.

Does lowes or Home depot cut glass. What thickness will i need? and do the baffles in the sump need teeth?

MiamiLeos

I'm doing the same thing, using a glass aquarium. I wish home depot cut glass but they dont. Have to find like a window or glass cutting place. I've been told that 1/4 inch glass is what is normally used. 1/8 inch is too brittle. Instead of teeth on the top baffle of my fuge, I plan to just put some egg crate to keep the snails and what not in. Same principal.

onefish2fish

i do not suggest keeping snails in your sump. it is possible but personally i had to move all my livestock into my refuge once including my snails, after moving things back up to my display ive missed a few snails down there and have since burned out two skimmer pumps due to snail shells getting stuck in the pump intake.

i also strongly suggest on that sump design to skip on adding live rock rubble and keeping it in the display as it can create an issue collecting debris and allowing it to break down into nutrients ( similiar to bio balls ) in the slower flowing area of a refugium. maybe keep 1-3 baseball sized rocks in there and rotate 1 up to the display once a week. even doing this can pose an issue of trapping debris in the refugium though so keep an eye out. the rest of the sump looks good.

MiamiLeos

Thanks! Only reason I was gonna put LR down there was 1)for the pods, and 2)because I heard it helped cut down on micro bubbles if you put them by the pipes

MiamiLeos

Without LR, what's another way to get pods from the fuge to the DT?