DIY DAS +refugium ?

J

jaabc

Ok... so I tried to add a refugium to my DAS. I have a 55g. I tried to add a 10g fuge. I wanted to keep my DAS built-in skimmer working, so I decided I would use the pump that normally pumps water out of the overflow back to the aquarium to pump water to the fuge. the pump is a Hagen-Laguna statuary 3, pumping 384gph. My return pump is a Rio 2500. After almost flooding my dining area and removing my nail from its nail bed, it was basically not right. the Rio is way tooo powerful... it pumps too much water into the main tank and not enough flows down to the fuge. (i thought this might happen, but I wanted to try anyhow) If I get another Laguna 3 pump as my return will that be enough to balance it out to run efficiently?? Also I noticed I dont have enough area (in the fuge) in case my electricity goes out and the return pump stops working to not flood my apt. The plumbing from return to main tank becomes a siphon and doesnt stop until the 10g is overflowing I dont think I can fit anything bigger than a 10g underneath my stand... What do ya'll think??
 
so are you saying 1 pump ,pumps water from the tank to the fuge?
and the other pump ,pumps water back to the tank?
 
you need a gravity return, if possible.

the return line needs to be double the incoming. like if you use 1/2" pipe back up to the main tank, have a 1" return down to the sump.

i have 1/2" pvc on both in and out on mine , and I dont like it. if i had 1" drain i could run the return pump harder, right now i have it throttled at the ball valve because the pump will pump faster than the drain will drain...

I have ball valves on both the in and out lines to add more control.

I built a overflow box out of 2 specemin containers and a u tube. I dont know you exact scenario, but it shouldnt take 2 pumps. one of the directions is gravity fed, depending on if you are going up or down to reach the sump/fuge area.

and with a overflow box or weir, it shouldnt overflow the tank or the sump, if you calculate it correctly. i think melevs ree has a page on priming the overflow box and calculating everything.

- saylor
 
it already kind of has an overflow box. i would prob have to make something that would fit in this section. its the das setup, so it has a built-in overflow w/return pump from overflow back to tank. if i take the pump out how do i make it so I dont have to use a return pump. i am using 1/2" pvc on both sides, so i can switch the one to the sump to 1". after that how do i prime it??? pvc goes up and out of tank down to fuge, which was why i was using a pump. i can try to take a pic... also what size fuge should i use and what sand depth?? i currently have a 10g, and i dont think i can fit a 20g.
 
can you get a picture of the overflow part? i dont understand what you are describing.

i built my own overflow / refugium / sump whatever after much study on the net.

i greatly relied on this site, among others:
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

read every one of those DIY sump posts from ^^ that site there.

my post of mine is in this forum, in the DIY section.
 
wait, i was thinking, lets just walk thru this and maybe we can make it . ..

OK - you have a built in overflow. that should do 2 things for you:
1.) water level of main tank cannot drain below the teeth of the top of the overflow.
2.) that overflow space should have some kind of bulkhead / attachment so you can run pipe / tube on down to the sump / fuge area Id think.

Anyways - on #1 above... once you get a drain line down to the sump. Have the sump empty. Get your top tank water level right below the teeth of the overflow so its about to spill over. Then start adding in water to the top tank, letting it overflow and drain to the sump. When the fuge is at 90% full level, stop adding in water, and take a sharpie marker and mark right on the fuge tank where the full water line is. NEVER NEVER EVER pass this line when topping off your tank. This way you have the other 10% of the top of the fuge tank + some extra space on the main tank to fight accidental overflows.

hope that makes sense.

I then let my tank lose water / evaporate after that until the water level in the fuge dropped to the minimum line for sump pump operation and the pump tripped off (auto lo-water shutoff pond pump from lowes) , and marked that too - as the low water mark.

As long as my fuge has water in between those lines somewhere, i'm golden.

now - somewhere there is a return line / bulkhead, and a pump involved. im not clear on that bit. is the return pump inside this overflow space and is supposed to draw water up from the sump area?
Is it in like a seperate chamber inside the overflow space?
 
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