What about this idea for a sump

C

ChuKronos

I am trying to come up with a different idea for a sump and refugium. This is my idea:
Refugium.jpg
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The idea is to have water enter the skimmer area. Then the water will travel through teeth cut into the lower half of the first baffle. The water will then travel over a 14 inch length of macro algae to the next baffle. That baffle will have 8 inch slits cut out in the middle to allow water to pass through without changing the water level in the Macro area. The water will repeat this process two more times. After passing through the third baffle with slits, the water will then pass through an additional 14 inches of macro algae before being forced to go over the final baffle. The final baffle has teeth cut into the top to keep the water at the proper level through the refugium filtration process. The water in the Macro section will only be as high as the teeth in the final baffle. The newly cleaned water will then travel through the return section into the return pump, and then back into the tank. All told, the water will travel through 56 inches of macro filtration. The water will be 12 inches high through the macro area, 12.5 inches tall in the skimmer section, and will be kept at 10 inches tall in the return section. The total water volume through the three sections will be 28 gallons.

What do you guys think?
-Chuck
 
Also, will this fit into my stand? I have 45 x 16 inch space in my stand.

Unfortunately it is an oceanic stand so, they have wood in the way of the openings.

I think I am going to have to cut it down to 38"

Anyone have experience with Oceanic 90g tank stands? I don't know how large of a sump I can put under it. I guess when I cut the current tank that I want to make this out of, I can assemble it in the stand.
-Chuck
 
I have also thought about that but I have come to the conclusion that it would not work any better than a regular refugium area because it would increase the water's velocity through the area as well decrease the amount of time the water contacts the macro.
 
I am hoping the columns will be very full of the macro, so the water won't have a choice but to pass through the macro. I am hoping that will increase the opportunity to clean the water. I do wonder how much the 5" chambers will change the velocity, and at what velocity is it too fast to be effective. I need to look into this more. Anyone know what the equation is to determine the velocity?
-Chuck
 
It may work. For sure, it will trap microbubbles.

I would build the sump, then install it in the stand rather than trying to construct a sump in the stand.
 
The idea can for sure work! I agree that if your using the same macro in each section then your really not doing anything different then one big area as the contact time will be the same.

You have some pretty cool options here though. You could use multiple types of algea, xenia, aptasia, clams, etc to have a lot of different filtering organisms. All in a different section. That is how I would go. Your really not gaining much unless you do that.
 
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