Is this possible? Plumbing question

[Wolf89]

So I have a 15 gallon sump and a 40 gallon refugium. I was wondering if I could put the sump on its own stand under my 90 gallon, that way I can create a syphon from the sump to the fuge, so I don't have to spend another hundred dollars on a return pump?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I would not rely on siphon. You loose the siphon, you have a flood. I'd have the sump slightly higher than the fuge and have the sump drilled up high with a bulkhead and pumping to directly gravity drain into the fuge.

 

[Bryson.bobby]

Deleted

 

[Bryson.bobby]

I tried something like that for awhile, but I was afraid it would loose siphon so I built a sump out of a 29 gal.

 

[Bryson.bobby]

 

[bluprntguy]

Sounds like the recipe for a disaster. If your sump and refugium are currently side by side, you shouldn’t need a very large pump. A $50 sicce 0.5 should move plenty of water into the refugium.

 

[russell13]

Nooooooo
Syphons are very unreliable anything can break the symphonic and cause a fail. Or what happens in a power outage. I’m doing something similar, I’m puting a 20 gallon tank under my display placing it higher than my sump. Then I’m going to drill the 20 gallon and use a small pump to move water into it. Basically the same thing you would do with a display tank.

 

[Peace River]

So I have a 15 gallon sump and a 40 gallon refugium. I was wondering if I could put the sump on its own stand under my 90 gallon, that way I can create a syphon from the sump to the fuge, so I don't have to spend another hundred dollars on a return pump?

Yes, it's possible. If the sump and refugium are on the same level and close to each other then you can add a "u" shaped PVC piping (two 90 degree joints, one pipe to connect the two, and then two PVC pipe legs going down into each tank). You could then tap the top piece of pipe and add a 1/4" air hose barb and add a Tom airlifter pump (or comparable) with 1/4" air hosing back into on of the two tanks. The pump/barb setup will clear the air and maintain your siphon where the two tanks will remain at the same water level.

Now, the related question is - is it a good idea? No, I don't think so because you don't have the flow need to exchange the water between tanks. In fact the scenario that I described above with the "u" shaped siphon is used in settling/clarifying tanks where debris can settle to the bottom of the secondary tank and be more easily remove (in this case you specifically do not want flow).

If the sump and refugium aren't at the same level then you could still use the barb setup to maintain your siphon and it would alleviate the problem of limited flow, but it seems like you would have a difficult time to provide the right level of flow throughout the system so that your upper tank (e.g., the sump) wouldn't drop to low or raise to high. Is it possible to setup an overflow from the sump to the refugium? I'm still not convinced that any of these solutions are optimal. In addition to asking "will it work?", you should also ask "is there a fail safe in place?" - meaning "what can go wrong?" It seems like that chance of adding a lot of water to the floor would be outweighed by the purchase of adding another (inexpensive) pump such as a Rio pump for 20-50$ depending on the GPH.

I apologize for the lengthy response and I hope my attempt to brainstorm with you is helpful. Good luck!

 

[Hemmdog]

Don’t do it. Also a 15gal sump on a 90gal is risky as well. Have you power outage tested it to make sure that your sump itself doesn’t flood?

 

[Wolf89]

If that's a bad idea, how would I go about plumbing them separately? I have only two holes for pipes. So like, a manifold for going in, evenly to both, and another for going back? Would the return pumps need to be half of the recommend each, that way the total is the recommend?

 

[Wolf89]

90 gal tank still young. Plan to stay with this tank for a couple of years. Nothing to change. Here is a pic as well

Don’t do it. Also a 15gal sump on a 90gal is risky as well. Have you power outage tested it to make sure that your sump itself doesn’t flood?

wouldn't the 40G fuge take in a lot of water? I would have valves so I can turn off the flow in and out of either one

 

[Hemmdog]

wouldn't the 40G fuge take in a lot of water? I would have valves so I can turn off the flow in and out of either one

If the power stops the siphon stops so no. It might pull a little bit but the strength of the siphon will slow way down and eventually stop. I’d just use the 40 as your sump and “experiment” with the 15 as a dedicated fuge.