Does this plumbing make sense?

[Sidewyz]

Dark Pipe is pumped from the sump.
Red Pipe is going to sump.

Flow from display tank is dropped into the left chamber of sump, we'll call this dirty water. The dirty water will be pumped out of this chamber into the fuge and skimmer for nutrient export. Hopefully I can move a lot of the water through the fuge to feed the pods and macros. The outflow from the fuge and skimmer (clean water) drops into the far right chamber where the return pumps feed the clean water to the display. I'm currently thinking to not process the fuge outflow as I'd like the pods to be returned to the display as food. The center of the sump will process the left over water that doesn't make it to the fuge or skimmer. This area may end up being the home for the macros if I can't keep flow high enough in the fuge to keep them growing and exporting.

Does this flow pattern make sense?

 

[Peach02]

it makes sense to me but I have a few observations / questions
1. having two pipes merge coming from the DT might cause a lot of pressure
2. you might want to have a overflow since if your return turns off the water will drain out of the tank
3. why not put the skimmer with the live rock, I'm not sure most skimmers can pump water that far back
4. you might want to move the first two baffles closer together if you want them to act as a bubble trap
5. what are you thinking of putting in the refugium, if you put something like a mandarin there you won't have any pods left to go to the DT and instead your DT will be feeding your Fuge

 

[Sidewyz]

I really appreciate your input, good points.
What about these ideas...

1) I’ll use 2” or separate the drains.
2) I didn’t draw the outlets from the display, they are standpipes.
3) it’s an external skimmer with its own pump and hard line plumbed to a bulkhead in the side of the sump. This is not shown on the drawing.
4) my plan is to use 1/2 pvc pipe to sandwich the sections of acrylic baffles into position. Nothing is siliconed into a ridged position. Thought behind this is, silicone doesn’t last on acrylic and ease of changing layout would be just cutting new dimensioned 1/2 pvc to reposition baffles.
5) not sure here... I know a mandarin, sea horses and pipe fish would be way cool. If that happens, I’d have to move pod colony to “live rock” area in sump.

 

[Sidewyz]

A concern that was brought up as my LFS when I showed the diagram was micro bubbles from the skimmer being in the same chamber as the return pumps. I’ll have to think on that....

 

[Bruce60]

You will need a standpipe for the refugium return also, as there will not be enough excess space in the sump to hold the volume of the fuge.

I would also consider whether the flow through the skimmer and refugium will reverse the flow through the sump. It depends on the flow through the return pump.

Consider this...

The tank has the overflow and returns through a 3" pipe in the center of the tank (its a tank viewable on all four sides). The sump and fuge are three separate chambers made from HDPE.
1. The water flows from tank in 1-1/2" flexible pipe into container on left. Inside there is a filter sock. I also have my probes in this chamber.
2. Water flows through black elbow in back left of stand into second container. I plumbed the external skimmer into the first section of this container. This container next has the bubble trap built in. The return pump is in the section behind the center wood support and has two 3/4" returns back to the tank.
3. The chamber on the right is the fuge. You can see some sand and rock rubble through the translucent wall. I have an additional pump in the return section that pumps water into the fuge. IT returns to tank under gravity through the 1-1/2 pipe coming out towards the camera and over the skimmer pump. ATO water is to the right of the fuge but pumps into the return section.

I considered feeding the fuge from the same chamber as the skimmer or the one with the sock but not sure it matters in terms of providing necessary nutrients to the fuge. Similar issue with source and return to skimmer from same compartment. Skimmer seems to produce adequate gunk (as shown), so doesn't seem to matter.

Best part of this system is the chambers are closed - have glass covers and there are drilled holes for the piping and power lines on the rear portions of the top, which is HDPE. Keeps humidity in stand low!