[randymon]

I will be upgrading my current 55 gal. softy & lps tank to a 125 72"-18-22" soon and have a few questions. My 55 is sumpless & will be using it for the sump on the 125. Sump design flow will be a Skimmer on one side, refugium on the other side, with the return in the middle. I have been doing lots of reading about sumps, pumps, flow rate, head, drilled vs undrilled etc. & this is my current plan. Please help, give advice, and alternative ideas where needed.
1.C.p.r overflow W/ 2, 1" Bulkheads rated @ 1,400 gph. with airlifter pump. Can I run to drains from this unit 1 to the skimmer & 1 to the refugium ? And is it as siphon break proof as the lifereef using the airlifter pump.
2.The sump will be in the basement with aprox. 10feet of head hooked up to a scwd ( mabey) so here are my possible pump choices. 1. quiet one 4000, 2. viagra 4900, or a mag 12 or 18.
3.skimmer choices, are either kent, aqua c or turboflotor.

Am I on the right track or not????

[Reefland]

Hi randymon,

I think you need to do some modifications. First if at all possible, get the tank drilled with dual corner overflows. It is well worth the efforts it will take to have a drilled tank opposed to the efforts required to keep an external overflow operating smoothly and sleeping easy at night.

Secondly, I guess you could do the sump like this but it would require a set of baffles to be used as the refugium flows into the center and as the skimmer section flows into the center. I think I would go for the skimmer on the left, refugium in the middle with a set of baffles to remove bubbles and then the pump on the far right.

For pumps, I think you'll need to go a bit better for pumping from the basement. Maybe look at Iwaki, Dolphin or Sequence.

Skimmers, again don't limit yourself to those. I would advice to stay away from the Kent completely and the Turboflotor for a tank that large. The AquaC EV skimmers are nice, also check out My Reef Creations, Deltec, Euro-Reef, etc. for some more powerful, better suited skimmers for your tank size.