Sump Design (Looking for input)

[Khoranic]

Hey guys im looking for your input on this.

I am creating a sump/refugium out of a 20 Gallon Tall tank, i also have a 30 gallon main display tank. I was talking with a guy that owns one of the LFS i goto (he makes custom sumps) about a design that would benefit my main tank. and he was explaining some stuff to me about it and said to have the Water coming from my main tank dump into the refugium then over a baffle and under another (with sponge) to the return chamber. And in the return chamber he said to place the pump pumping into the Protein skimmer then from the skimmer to the tank.

So i went ahead with a quick sketch on paint then drew a more detailed drawing with AutoCAD.

Here is the JPEG of the Paint Drawing. Let me know what your guys thoughts are on this design.



~Thanks

[Dreamweaver]

Split your 20 gal tank in half use one part of it for a skimmer and the other half as your refugium. Thats what I did with mine and it works great my nitrate levels were running in the high 40's ppm now they are running 10 ppm. Good luck.

[ToddTT]

If you haven't been there already:

Melevsreef.com | Acrylic Sumps & Refugiums

And also check out all of the links on that page (on the left hand side).

[Khoranic]

Thanks for the responses and I have read almost everthing on melevs page... on another note I was told by someone on another forum to not put the skimmer in the return chamber.. though it was reccommended by the guy who owns my lfs due to the size of my sump and main display combo.. any input on this?

[zhenya]

Thanks for the responses and I have read almost everthing on melevs page... on another note I was told by someone on another forum to not put the skimmer in the return chamber.. though it was reccommended by the guy who owns my lfs due to the size of my sump and main display combo.. any input on this?

I wouldn't recommend putting skimmer in the return line either. Any small animal drawn into the skimmer most likely will be killed instead of making its way into display.
My sump, the one that incorparated refugium, was split into three parts... drain(included skimmer) then it passed on to refugium and than free flow into return chamber. Return area had a pump in it but I always had strainer on the intake. You want skimmer in the drain area so that you will skim water from the tank, then skimmed (clean) water should pass on to the fuge and so on.