Feedback on Custom Sump Design

rsumner · Jan 3, 2019

Howdy, gang. I think I'm ready to take the leap into purchasing a custom sump and wanted feedback from everyone. Some of my goals:

While I don't use the Triton Method, I do appreciate the simplicity of a Refugium for the purposes of growing Chaeto, so I'd like about 20% of my display volume (108G) to be dedicated to the fuge.
I intend on running a Thieling Compact Rollermat, but want the flexibility to go back to socks if I want to in the future.
I want a place for biomedia and carbon
I want my probes to be protected from microbubbles generated by the skimmer
I want dosing lines for the refugium and for 2-part
I want an ATO dosing line

Here is my current design:

I'm hoping that I can get a custom insert for the rollermat section that will seat it perfectly and I can just plumb it directly. And then, if I want to get rid of the rollermat later and go back to socks, I could just drop-in a dual 4" sock holder. I have a Red Sea Reefer 525, so I would use one of the drains in the back as my emergency drain line and the primary would go directly to the rollermat.

As for the skimmer section, I was a little concerned about the size, however it will accommodate my Reef Octopus Regal 150SSS which only has a footprint requirement of 9" x 7.5". Do you feel I may need more space so that it can operation efficiently.

Lastly, it's not drawn here, but I do intend on having algae guards between the refugium and skimmer sections and a height adjustable baffle between the skimmer and media rack sections so I can adjust it for my skimmer today, but making it adaptable if I change it out later.

I'd love all of your feedback as to whether or not you see any problems with the design or feel it's spot on?

geddavis · Jan 3, 2019

It looks like solid plan. When I was building my sump I over thought it way to much. Just make sure you equipment fits and water passes through the way you like. For mine I built a mini acrylic model as a prototype to make sure water flowd through right. You could do this or make a 3D model online to test out the plan. Tinker cad is good for this.

rsumner · Jan 3, 2019

geddavis said:
It looks like solid plan. When I was building my sump I over thought it way to much. Just make sure you equipment fits and water passes through the way you like. For mine I built a mini acrylic model as a prototype to make sure water flowd through right. You could do this or make a 3D model online to test out the plan. Tinker cad is good for this.

Thanks for the response. I'm going to have Synergy Reef or Crystal Reef Aquatics built it, so I'll let them worry about all the small details ;-). I mainly wanted feedback on the overall design from the community before I presented it to their teams for pricing. My investment in drawing it up in PowerPoint is likely as far as I'll take it and pay the professionals to spit shine it.