adding a fuge

[poakley723]

Ok my current set up is a 125g 72" tank and i have what i think is like a 40g AGA sump divided into 2 sections with a bubble trap. My skimmer and is on one side and my return pump which is a mag 9 on the other. My skimmer is a reef octopus NW 200. I plan to add a ATO on the return pump side.

Now for my question. What would be the best way to add a fuge?

Option 1 add another small sump like a 10 or 20g tank. The problem with this is I don't know how i would plumb it and keep it quite.

Option 2 divide the section with my mag nine and just let my fuge get half the water flow from my bubble trap which would then over flow into the return pump section. I don't know if this would be large enough for a useful fuge. I would guess it to be like 5 gallons divided like this and would end up with more the 50% of the water flow that my return pump produces.

Any input is apriciated.

Thanks Nick

 

[lmn420]

5 gallons seems to small IMO, but something is better than nothing. You could have a tee on your return line or on the drain line. After the tee put a ball valve or gate valve to control the amount of flow that would be diverted to the fuge and if your fuge is plastic/acrylic it isn't hard to drill a hole near the top to run back to the return pump. Of course that would require that the top of the fuge is higher than the sump. There are tons of options so some more info would be nice like a pic of the sump as it is currently? That is about all I can think of now,
Lindsay

 

[poakley723]

Would it work to make a smaller overflow box and have it flow into a ten gallon tank or maybe a 20g tank and a bulk head in the side where it would flow into the return side of my sump.

Maybe i should draw a picture!

Oh and I will take a picture of my sump tomorrow.

 

[beoks]

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/c/split_sump.html

are you thinking of something like this

 

[travis_]

Now for my question. What would be the best way to add a fuge?

Option 1 add another small sump like a 10 or 20g tank. The problem with this is I don't know how i would plumb it and keep it quite.

I don't know if this will help, but what I did is connect my 25 gallon fuge to my 30 gallon sump via a HUGE homemade U-tube and it is wisper quiet and failproof. I used 2" PVC, one leg into the sump, up to a 90 degree fitting, over to the fuge (which in this case is like 4') and then connected to a Tee into the fuge. The bottom leg of the tee goes into the fuge and the top portion I plugged and installed a small fitting for 3/16" tubing. I can either hook this tubing up to a powerhead for suction (which is great to create the inital siphon as well) or as I usually do just stick it down into the fuge. I have never lost the siphon. I actually don;t even bother to hook this tube up to a powerhead anymore beacause it is so relaible. And the one time I took the u-tube out and lost my siphon, I just sucked on the 3/16" tube to recreate the siphon. I can take pics if you like. You can see part of it here, 2nd photo down: http://www.greenconversion.net

 

[poakley723]

Yes that will work great! Thanks for the link! I will use a 10g or maybe a 15g tall tank.

 

[travis_]

Yes that will work great! Thanks for the link! I will use a 10g or maybe a 15g tall tank.

If you are ever north in Bellingham come by and I can give you a bunch of macro algae to get your fuge going. Plus I have pretty good deals on live sand loaded with life, worms, mysis shrimp, etc. to seed you DSB in your fuge. Plus you can check out my system. It is a little unique to say the least.

 

[poakley723]

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas and links. I think i know how I am going to set up my fuge now.

It will be very simlar to the link Beoks sent me.