Ok my sump is a little off the norm. Please help me with flow choice.

[King_Neptune]

My Sump is set up a little different.

DT drains via dual 1.5" bulkheads(totall 2600GPH max) and then splits to either end of my sump. I have ball valves on each side. In theory Ill do 630-850GPH to the fuge side. It will fall onto an 18" wide Scrubber, and then drain into the LR sump. that will tripple baffle/bubble trap drain into the middle which will be the Return pump area.

On the opposite side of the sump I have the drain going into a skimmer section...again this is flow controlled so I can adjust the GPH.

I have the ability to selectively increase or decrease the flow to either fuge or skimmer as I see fit. This gives me a degree of flexibility that most sumps don't have. I will have it designed so that I can divert up to 1300GPH to the fuge. And still maintain a max of 1300GPH in the skimmer. Or divert the flow back and bleed off the Fuge feed, and increase the skimmer to a max of 2600GPH leaving 0GPH for the fuge.

Obviously this is overkill in either direction. . But you can see how I have lots of room choosing a pump to fit my needs. As I have a large degree of flexibility.

Please advise me on flow rates and what I should consider on my 125gallon DT, 55gal sump reef system.
I want to do it all, corals fish, everything.

 

[ULTAQUARIUMSVCS]

We like a pic or dimm or a drwing of the sump please prob we could help you better.

 

[King_Neptune]

We like a pic or dimm or a drwing of the sump please prob we could help you better.

Ignore the high baffle on the left(inner most one that goes into the return)...that is being replaced with a 10" later tonight.
The skimmer section is on the right.
Return Area center.
The fuge is on the left.

The egg crate is floating...but when I put sand and rocks it will sit against the glass to prevent it from getting broken.

 

[kgross]

I will say slow down the flow into the main tank, and remove the ball valves from the drains. If you want to be able to control the flow from one end of the sump to the other, the only safe way is to connect both drains together in a horizontal pipe. Then off of hte bottom of this pipe have a valve to control the flow into one side of the sump. For the other side, have a outlet off of the top of the horizontal pipe, so that the water backs up from the valve and then the rest goes out the other end. With valves you can get things into the valves to partially block them, and then you can have an overflow.

With a 125 gallon tank, I would only do around 700 gph total through your sump system. Much easier to keep it quite and a lot less power. For the rest of your flow use some good flow powerheads or a closed loop.

For your skimmer setup, have the output of the skimmer seperate from the main skimmer section so you can set the flow to be close to equal to the skimmer, so all of the surfactants that you concentrate with your overflow, go through the skimmer to be removed, rather than just pumped back into the display tank.

Kim

 

[RAJOD]

Yea that way seems safer on the drain side.

I will say slow down the flow into the main tank, and remove the ball valves from the drains. If you want to be able to control the flow from one end of the sump to the other, the only safe way is to connect both drains together in a horizontal pipe. Then off of hte bottom of this pipe have a valve to control the flow into one side of the sump. For the other side, have a outlet off of the top of the horizontal pipe, so that the water backs up from the valve and then the rest goes out the other end. With valves you can get things into the valves to partially block them, and then you can have an overflow.

With a 125 gallon tank, I would only do around 700 gph total through your sump system. Much easier to keep it quite and a lot less power. For the rest of your flow use some good flow powerheads or a closed loop.

For your skimmer setup, have the output of the skimmer seperate from the main skimmer section so you can set the flow to be close to equal to the skimmer, so all of the surfactants that you concentrate with your overflow, go through the skimmer to be removed, rather than just pumped back into the display tank.

Kim

 

[King_Neptune]

Yea that way seems safer on the drain side.

12months later.... ha ah. well this is an old old one.
This place is pretty dead. Not too many members, mostly people who barter and frag swap imo.

Anyways, I got it setup and running now for some time.
It has 50lbs of LR and a 12x19" scrubber on the left.
The center is empty and that needs water added to it at a rate of about 5g a week.

The right side is mostly bare and capable for upgrades.
I can turn on a GFO/Carbon reactor(it hangs outside, so only has an inlet and outlet 1/2 inch line., but since my water is so pristine, i can get by with just carbon running in the reactor. So to sum it up, I got lots of room still to add more if I want. Pretty much 20g worth of volume on the right is free, and about 5g on the left; in case I wanted to add macro algae or something below the scrubber on the left

I keep the water wide open on both sides, and the mag 1800 throttled to about 75%.
I dont know what the head loss is off the top of my head anymore.
But I am happy with what I consider a light gentle water flow through the sump.

 

[RAJOD]

Hows that turf filter? Is it a pain to clean?

 

[RAJOD]

Off the topic, but what type of store (local not net) sells egg crate? I went to a couple of hardware stores and asked for it. I get that blank deer in the headlights stare. "Egg what?
" is the reply.

 

[kgross]

Most big box hardware stores wiill sell it, it is lighting diffuser for the suspended ceiling light fixtures. You normally find it with the ceiling tiles in home depot/lowes.

Kim

 

[RAJOD]

LOL, thanks! Your the first person that called it whats its probably used for, Diffuse lighting.
vs egg crates.

 

[King_Neptune]

Hows that turf filter? Is it a pain to clean?

Its not hard to clean. The one downside is sometimes frustrating to get it to flow even after a few days growth that gathers in one section faster.
The excess slurping means noise and evaporation.

That plays out good in the fact that your constantly adding fresh water.

I'll be checking out some LED's that just came in. I want to use them for the grow light. It will hopefully be a nice experiment. Over all I approve highly of the turf scrubber. Its not the end all be all. But I would definitely call it Noob friendly. I would most assuredly want to do it completely professional under full LEDs. And nice panels and such, with a well built flow and lighting system. I did mine as an experiment to see if the concept worked. I concluded it did. And mine is micky-mouse compared to some of the supreme ones Ive seen. So my next big build will for sure have one built in like a real pro.

 

[RAJOD]

I might add a small one on the refugium Maybe just 14 long by 4 inches. But if you already have chaeto algae in the refuge would it be any better at reducing nitrate?

 

[King_Neptune]

I might add a small one on the refugium Maybe just 14 long by 4 inches. But if you already have chaeto algae in the refuge would it be any better at reducing nitrate?

I do have a scrubber on the fuge side. Its currently off. Ill put it back on later this summer after I see how things handle themselves without the scrubber running.

It worked great when it was running. And ya, it reduces the nitrates much better than if i was doing chaeto. If anything having chaeto simply slows down the effectiveness of the scrubber.

 

[RAJOD]

Let us know how it works, I'm curious about scubbers.

Probably best to have both, the chaeto for a backup while the scrubber is cleaned.