External Refugium Plumbing Question

[derek_s]

Will this work?

I am thinking about plumbing a small, drilled 25 gal external refuge on my tank to grow some various macros and mangroves in like a display fuge. I was thinking of just tapping off one of the drains and just doing a flow-through type setup. The fuge tank is slightly above the exit on the tank drain, so the water will flow down, up slightly, and into the fuge. Then back down.

The only flood potential I see is the drain gets clogged, so the tank overflows. Anything I'm missing?

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[blind1993]

to prevent a flood put a float sponge thing on the out put and when the water level rises it will shut off and then will open when it gets lower.

 

[johnr2604]

Should work fine I basically have the same thing on alot smaller scale. Here is a pic from when I set it up.

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[skriz]

Some suggestions:

1. Make sure that your drain pipe is high enough in the display that if you were to lose power, only a little bit of water will drain into the fuge.

2. Put the fuge drain slightly lower than the input for the same reason.

3. If you're worried about the drain clogging, have 2 smaller drains.

 

[johnr2604]

Oh, I see now how you have it Run off the overflow from the main tank. Mine actually pumps up from my sump and is basically run like I plumbed another system in. Any reason you are opting not to go that route short of buying another pump?

 

[roundman]

I plumbed mine into the return. It t's off and feeds the fuge, the fuge then flows back to the return area of the sump. One pump.

 

[chemically_balanced]

johnr2604;229555 wrote: Oh, I see now how you have it Run off the overflow from the main tank. Mine actually pumps up from my sump and is basically run like I plumbed another system in. Any reason you are opting not to go that route short of buying another pump?

I think he was trying to keep the number or pumps to a minimal. Why add extra heat and cost to the system when you already have circulation?

 

[lifestudent]

roundman;229607 wrote: I plumbed mine into the return. It t's off and feeds the fuge, the fuge then flows back to the return area of the sump. One pump.

While I certainly can see how plumbing this off the return could be easy and keeps the system to one pump, I see the following greater benefits from plumbing from the main display tank into the refugium:
<ol>
<li>The display water will contain higher levels of nutrients for growing your macroalgaes as compared to the (mechanically/biologically) filtered water from the sump</li>
<li>Using gravity and the head pressure from the display tank to power your water flow from the display into the refugium is more economical/efficient</li>
<li>Tapping off the return to supply the refugium directly reduces that much water flowing into the main display tank.</li>
</ol>Great question Corvettecris! :up:

 

[derek_s]

Lifestudent has it exactly right.

The water entering the fuge fromthe drains is theoretically the dirtiest water in the system, thus best to run through an algae farm. And the rest is just conservation of energy. I have a spare pump or two, but why run them if this is possible?

If it were a frag tank on the other hand, I would use a seperate pump, as then I could pump the 'cleanest' water in without reducing DT flow by using a return.

 

[jason sartain]

You might need to put in a ball valve on the intake side because it may flow in too stong and blow everything around.Just a thought.

 

[derek_s]

Ok, I did it. Surprisingly, I had to put a ball onnot the outlet, but on the drain feeding it.

The problem was that since the external was slightly higher than the drain on the DT, there was not enough pressure building to force the water up into the external. A ball valve fixed this, allowing me to add just enough pressure to get some flow.

I worked through a few fail scenarios to see if this valve caused a problem. Should be ok I think. I put two 1" drains on the external just incase one gets clogged by macro or something.

Works like a charm, and it now has some cheato and 40 mangroves testing it out. I am currently using two 100W CFL 6500k floodlights for lighting, and it is on a reverse cycle.

 

[glxtrix]

Sweet man.....Now lets see some pics!

 

[derek_s]

Yeah, I should to that. When I get home.

The only problem I have now is that the light produced from the lamps is pretty bright at night, so I may have to build some kind of canopy to conceal it. It's in my living room, so the light is pretty annoying.

Pics will show...

 

[derek_s]

Man, looking back at my first diagram.... I am a ms paint MASTER!