Anatomy Of A Sump and Its Supporting Cast

[linda lee]

What is actually in the cabinet under your tank?</em>

I need a diagram, a picture, a brief explanation in layman's terms. A flow chart... anything. I've searched the ARC site for threads and the wiki for articles but I don't have a lot of luck with the search engine here. If this has already been discussed at length in a thread, please share the link.

This is what I'd like to know:

<span style="color: darkred;">#1 H2O leaves the tank via (1)_________ and enters (2)_____________.</span>
<span style="color: darkred;">(2)___________ contains (3)_____________.</span>


<span style="color: darkslateblue;">#2 H2O leaves (2)___________ via (4)_________ and enters (5)__________.</span>
<span style="color: darkslateblue;">(5) __________ contains (6)_____________.</span>


<span style="color: darkgreen;">#3 H2O leaves (5)__________ via (7)_________ and returns to the tank.</span>

<span style="color: black;">These are my guesses. Please fill in the blanks and show me where I may have mislabeled the numbers and elaborate. Name specific pieces of equipment and any DIY's. Visual aids are helpful! </span>

(1) overflow?
(2) sump?
(3) __________? (contents of sump -- protein skimmer? heater? UV? calcium reactor?)
(4) __________? (how does H2O leave the sump?)
(5) refugium?
(6) __________? (contents of refugium -- LR/LS/cheato/inverts)
(7) __________? (how does H2O leave refugium?)

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Would your set-up be the same for a reef tank as it would be for a FOWLR?

Would this vary dramatically depending on tank size?

Suppose you were doing this for a 125 gal with mostly fish. What would you do?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

1) Overflow
2) Sump
3) Skimmer, Heater, Probes, UV, Reactors, Etc
4) Bulkhead or overflow
5) Refugium
6) Deep Sand Bed, Macro Algae, extra LR, Really no inverts
7) a pump

Or you could reverse all that and make your fuge the first thing in the loop and your sump the last.

You could be like me and have a seperate sump container and a seperate fuge, or you can use the combo method and only have one tank seperated into different sections via baffels.

I would not change the design even if it was a FOWLR vs. a Reef. You just want to make the largest amount of water volume you can. Me personally, I would rather have a larger fuge then a larger sump.

Now there are a few ways to design a fuge. I like a light and a dark portion of my sumps. the dark portion gives a great place for sponge and worms to live that do not like the high light of a lighted fuge. These creatures are filter feeders and help clean the water.

Hope that helps... the best way to get a grasp of it all is to see other peoples tanks and design around your needs.

 

[cameron]

It is generally a bad idea to put the sump and skimmer behind the fuge since it would skim out many of the great elements a fuge provides.

Generally speaking there are two general right ways to do it:

Main Tank -> Sump -> Fuge -> Return Area -> Main Tank

or

Main Tank - > Sump - > Return Area - > Main Tank
- > Fuge - >

In the later scenario, water flows from the main tank into the fuge and the sump. Then both the sump and fuge flow water into the return area. There are other ways to do it, but these are the most common. Also keep in mind both ways can be done inside of one tank with seperate compartments or multiple tanks connected via bulkheads.

http://jjgeisler.com/reeftank/sump_refugium-55.gif" alt="" />

[IMG]http://www.geocities.com/roundbayreef/sump3.jpg alt="" />

 

[blind1993]

that is a nice diagram it has all the info u need to know and on mlevsreef i think he has a head loss calc.