[SAMarkland]

I am JUST starting to plan a 55 gallon tub tank. My husband currently has a 30 gall. long, and I am just now becoming "active" in the hobby. Does anyone have some advice about sumps and refugiums? (He will help me, but he does not have either on the 30 gallon) Any advice or tips will be welcome.

I have had a lot of people say to BUY them from lifeline or some other vendor; however, I cannot see the plausibility of this when I have heard of more inexpensive ways - I just don't know what exactly goes into either!

Thanks!
Sam

[Reefland]

Welcome to Reefland!

A sump refugium combo is not that difficult. Some people go with a purchased custom combo because they want to be able to plug and play, don't have the skill or tools to DIY or just don't have the time; however they are pretty simple.

Using a standard size tank and insterting baffles is an easy approach. For example, I am using a standard 20gal tank which will have 3 sections. The first section is going to have the drain line from the tank and the skimmer. The second section will be the largest and will be for additional LS and LR. There will be 3 baffles going under-over-under leading into the final section which will contain the pump.

One thing to plan is you must make sure that the sump/refugium has an operating level that will accept the drain water from the tank in case of a power outage. To give an idea, a 75gal tank would drain approx. 7 gallons of water during a power outage. Ensuring your sump/refugium will hold this much additional water over it's operating level will prevent a flood in your house.

Using a standard tank, you can pick up some plexigalss from your local hardware store, cut it to size and use aquarium safe silicone to secure them in place.

I hope this gives you a bit of help. If you have some more specific questions I'll be happy to help.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[scubadude]

Welcome to RL!

I totally agree w/ Scott about making a simple sump refugium out of a cheap glass tank and some glass baffles and a tube of silicone! Here is the design I use for my refugium/sump



HTH

[SAMarkland]

Thanks for the advice; I really appreciate you taking the time to answer me! I still have a lot of research to do before I take the plunge, but I believe that this is the basic approach that I will take for the setup.

Question about combos, tough - does it make a difference for better or for worse whether you have a sump/fuge combo or separate sump and fuge?

[Reefland]

Well, theres pros and cons to everything right?!

Combined:
Less Room
Less Equipment

Separate Refugium:
Reduced flow through refugium
Potentially gravity feed to main tank if sat above

Just to name a few.
Scott Z.