My first DIY Sump/Refugium.

[harley3]

I bought a 20 Long this weekend to make this thing. What do you think of my design? Pretty basic but wasn't sure on the location of the Marine Pure balls or if it matters if they are before or after the refugium. The refugium is not a priority but will be used eventually.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Looks pretty good to me! You may be able to make the refugium section a bit bigger too depending on what skimmer you go with and whether or not you want to add a reactor of some sort to the same chamber as the skimmer.

 

[Reef_Pilot]

I am certainly no expert, as this will be my first SW tank with a sump, but that is very similar to the design that I am going to use.

 

[TMB]

If it were me, I would do something like this:

Remove baffle 1 & 2, they are unnecessary because you don't really care if bubbles get to your refugium.
Remove baffle 4, to make a bubble trap you want to draw from the bottom, bubbles rise and hit baffle 5 (yellow) and pure water goes down.
If you leave the 3 baffle design, bubbles that enter the trap will get pushed through along with water flow.
I would also lower baffle 6, having smaller steps helps eliminate bubbles that form from water dropping too far.
Removing the extra baffles will also give you a lot more room!
I would also not put anything in between baffles as it will increase the speed of the water flowing between them. If you get the water going too fast it won't cling to the downstream side of the baffle, and will shoot out causing splashing and bubbles to form in the return section.
(The extra horizontal blue lines are the water levels in each section)
These are obviously my opinions, and there are many ways to do this. This just comes from my experience building sumps. HTH

 

[Even Further]

You could also gain water volume in the fuge by moving it to the far right, use the tallest possible baffle, and feed the fuge by tee'ing off the return.

 

[harley3]

Thank you @TMB, that makes a lot of sense. So would you not use MarinePure balls at all or would you put them in the Fuge?

 

[harley3]

You could also gain water volume in the fuge by moving it to the far right, use the tallest possible baffle, and feed the fuge by tee'ing off the return.

That is a good idea too and I think I have the plumbing pieces I would need. Thanks

 

[TMB]

Using the Marine pure balls is up to you, it really does the same job as live rock when used passively in the sump. So unless you want a limited amount of rock in the display it is probably not necessary.

However, later down the road you could use them in a nitrate reactor like this: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/poor-man-nutrients-control-donovans-nitrate-destroyer.302685/

Donovan's reactor does work, I can tell you first hand.
@Donovan Joannes

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Using the Marine pure balls is up to you, it really does the same job as live rock when used passively in the sump. So unless you want a limited amount of rock in the display it is probably not necessary.

However, later down the road you could use them in a nitrate reactor like this: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/poor-man-nutrients-control-donovans-nitrate-destroyer.302685/

Donovan's reactor does work, I can tell you first hand.
@Donovan Joannes

I have built quite a number of this destroyer, I have yet to see one that doesn't work. Thanks for your recommendation, appreciate it very much.

 

[harley3]

I will have to check that out. I may have to build one for the my 120 gallon at least.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

My nitrate destroyer helped alot in managing my nutrients. I have non-WC SPS dominated 75G tank and I only have a few things in my sump (return pump, air stone, small wavemaker and nitrate destroyer). No maintenance needed except carbon dosing and "filter sock" changing. I can spend more time enjoying my tank with this very minimal setup.