Best way to hook up rubbermaid

[Skunk Clown]

Containers.
I want to get rid of my small sump. it has a built in Skimmer.
I have 1 20 or 30 callon container. I want to use a refugium also, Should i use this 1 or get 2 smaller ones and have a sump with a skimmer and one as a refugium. Or can i do it all in 1?
Please help??????

[tendar]

Generally your better off with a seperate refugium and sump but alot of people just build thier refugium into the sump to save room. If you have the room for both then do seperate.

[reddhaus]

I agree Tendar.

The main reason is because a sump normally has a high flow rate. High flow rates are not the ideal setup for refs.

Just my 2 cents....

[Skunk Clown]

how would i hook 2 together though? i want the seperate refugium. but i am lost on how to connect the 2 with 1 overflow, 1 return etc.....
please help.

[reddhaus]

I think it would be sort of like what i am planning for my 125 tank.

I will be using a 20 gal long for my sump and something like a 15 or 20 gal high for my ref. The overflows from the tank will feed into the sump and then i will use a Mag 18 to return to the tank. I will also have a small Mag pump that will pump from the sump over to the ref. I will have the ref tank drilled for a bulkhead and just overflow/gravity feed back to my sump. This way the flow rate of the sump and ref are independent of eachother and can be fine tuned for optimal flow.

You may have to do something similar and try to use the overflow idea to get back to your sump.

You might also be able to split your drain line from your tank and have one run to the sump and the other to the ref. Then you could gravity feed from the ref to the sump and return from the sump. That way you would only have one return pump and you could forget about the small pump to get the water from your sump to the ref. If you go this way, you should put a ball valve on the drain branch going to the ref. That way you can keep the flow rate under control for the ref and the rest will just go straight to the sump.