Chaeto Refugium

wake125122

wake125122

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So I recently picked up a 55 gallon tank and I have decided to turn it into a sump. Upgrading from my 20 gallon sump. So I am thinking of adding a Chaeto chamber to it. Here is how I plan to set it up. From left to right. The 1st chamber will have the drain with filter sock, Apex probes, ATO sensor & a marine pure block. 2nd chamber will be protein skimmer (reff oct 200 int), 1 BRS GFO reactor, 1 BRS carbon reactor, dosing pump holder and heater. 3rd chamber will be Chaeto with light above. Last chamber will be return pump, maybe a few extra pcs of live rock. Does anyone see any problems with this order? Also what kind of light is everyone using for their Chaeto and how long do you run it?
 
You're really trying to pack a lot of stuff in there. With 4 chambers there's not going to be a lot of room for the fuge. 1st off the ATO sensor needs to be in the return chamber with the pump. That last chamber will be the only one where the water level changes due to evaporation. You also want to place the sensor probes in an area with the least amount of bubbles, so the drain and skimmer chambers are out. On a side note you don't want any temp sensors that will control heaters in the same chamber as, or down stream of, the heaters. The best place for them is either in the display or in the drain chamber right next to the main drain line. With the dosing lines. You want them dripping in an area of high flow, not just into the middle of a chamber. I like to have mine dripping right on top of a weir where the water flows from one chamber to the next and down stream of the heaters and skimmer.

How are you running the reactors? Manifold or dedicated pump(s)?
 
I have  a 300 mirco filter sock and a silencer on the drain so their is basically 0 if any micro bubbles in any of the chambers. My current set up is basically what I have above minus the Chaeto and reactors. I ordered the reactors yesterday they will each have a dedicated pump. My ATO is in my 1st chamber on my current sump and has no problem keeping everything level. The new sump is 4 feet long so I have a decent amount of space to work with. It's just tall and narrow. I was thinking of putting the dosing lines in the same chamber as the protein skimmer because the Ref oct puts out a pretty good bit of water movement. Not sure if you are familiar with it but it the reff oct 200 int. It has like a 1 1/2 drain at the top side of it that spits water out and causes a decent amount of water movement. Do you think that this still wouldn't be a good place to put it?
 
Here is a rough idea of what I am looking to do. This is not to scale

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alt="Capture" />
 
I think you had it better in the fist one. You can remove the 1st weir after the drain if you want to and by going over the weir after the skimmer into the fuge it will help the Chaeto tumble the way you want it to. That will also set a constant height for the skimmer chamber and allow a slight drop into the fuge. I would dose right on top of that weir too. It will help keep the skimmer pump from fouling, you also don't want to dose directly into the same chamber as your heaters.

I don't know how your sump is setup now but with this design the ATO sensor will not work in the drain chamber. The return chamber will run dry and it would still not trip the ATO to add water. I would also reverse the order of the bubble trap to under over under.

This is basically the way mine is now. The heaters are with the skimmer. I dose on top of the weir going into the fuge. My probes are in the 1st part of the bubble trap and the ATO is in the return.

Tn45r6pw2ycjj0bos8ef0bp4hrjtjzkrd.jpg
alt="sump2" />
 
So go with the first one then. Not sure why the ATO sensor would not work in the first chamber. I have the Tunze 3155 ATO and from my first picture that's basically how my current sump is set up minus the chaeto space and the reactors. Never had the return pump run dry. I've had it low a few times when I ran it out of ATO water but never dry like you are saying.
 
So from the look of it I can take out 1 of the chambers and put it with the drain to save space. So then I would put the probes and ATO in the last chamber & then dose where?
 
Yes that would be better. You don't need a bubble trap after the skimmer. Just one weir separating the 1st and second chambers. The height of that weir sets the water level for the skimmer so it will not change unless when the return pump is off the level rises above it. Put the dosing tubes directly over that weir, the dropping water will mix the Alk and Cal up nicely. The middle weir of the bubble trap is what sets the height of the fuge, it needs to be 1" to 1.5" shorter then the weir after the skimmer.

The bubble trap placement for the probes is just what works for me. If you go that way then they would need to be moved over to the left in the 1st part of the trap where the water is moving up. If you have a spot that is bubble free in the first chamber then they will be fine there. On your current sump, if the water level doesn't change from the drain to the return then there are no real compartments that are water tight and the ato sensor would work anywhere. With this type sump the only chamber that the water level fluctuates in, due to evaporation, is the return chamber when the pump is on.

I live in Duluth, if you want to stop by sometime your welcome to.
 
That's pretty good. If you put all the equipment in there before getting the glass you can make sure everything will fit the way you want. Use a sharpie to mark the weir locations. You also want the return chamber to be 12 ~ 14 inches long, that is to the center bubble trap weir. Depending on how high that chamber is you should be able to get 8 to 10 gallons in there. Don't go less than that.

I highly recommend checking out some other diy sumps before you order the glass. Then you'll have more info to work with. I did this all myself the 1st time not that long ago so I know where your at with the planning. After the 1st sump I ended up making another about 7 months later. That first one wasn't bad, just not big enough for upgrades. Let me know if you want to stop by.
 
Do you think this would be to powerful?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/huc/view.html?ie=UTF8&newItems=C38R3KZR954N1Z%2C1

If so do you think this would be a better option?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KL8OW0U/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A7DC3EDEBQG4S
 
I would go with the 20w I linked in your ATS thread. With only 14" of width to the 55 sump that would be plenty, maybe even to big. That light is also lower profile.
 
Why complicate things?  You only need 2 chambers, 3 max if you want to tumble the cheato.

You can have Live rock, reactor pumps, heaters, dosing outlets, cheato and the skimmer in the same section. Its how I have my system setup(aside from my skimmer is external)  All of it is in one big 100g section of my sump and then I just have a decent size return section to handle overflow and evaporation in case something goes wrong.  Also if you add a drain to the fuge, and a bypass valve you can drain the fuge and refill it for water changes and never disturb your display.

If you want to tumble the cheato you can divide off a section with egg crate, or if you want make a separate section.
 
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