refugium tank on reefer 250

[nolifer]

Hi, there I've been using a refugium on my red sea reefer inside the V2 sump but the light is trashing my skimmer as well as the sump. I've decided to add a small tank 6.5g to become the area to grown chaeto in. I've blacked out 300x300x300 tank to stop the light spill worked really well.

Here is my problem now after I filled the tank up I used a ball valve to control the flow coming from my main pump If I leave the valve fully opened I get a gurgling sound from the water exiting pipe, once I close the valve to bring the water level down the noise will go away but the flow is not there anymore. the bulkheads are 1 inch. I don't want to use another pump or powerhead what can I do here to help?????

 

[Flameback Pair]

@nolifer is the pipe going to your refugium Tee'd off your return pump line? BTW do you have a build thread for your Reefer 250?

 

[nolifer]

@nolifer is the pipe going to your refugium Tee'd off your return pump line? BTW do you have a build thread for your Reefer 250?

Yes, the return has a tee what is going to the refugium, sorry don't have a build thread my tank has been up and running for some time now just modding what problems I have had with it.

 

[Rjramos]

Remember,water will flow in path of least resistance, especially if you tees off to a smaller diameter line to feed the refugium. Is there a ball valve on the display return also? The gurgling is probably a Venturi effect at the tee , which sucks air into the line. Now that I see where you mounted that refugium, may I suggest you tee off your display return and feed the refugium from there. I have 3 tanks running this way.

 

[nolifer]

Remember,water will flow in path of least resistance, especially if you tees off to a smaller diameter line to feed the refugium. Is there a ball valve on the display return also? The gurgling is probably a Venturi effect at the tee , which sucks air into the line. Now that I see where you mounted that refugium, may I suggest you tee off your display return and feed the refugium from there. I have 3 tanks running this way.

thank you for the reply, I'm thinking of cutting into the main drain pipe and just tee off this it's 32mm pipe I was going to just reduce it down to the 1" bulkheads what's already fitted to the refugium tank but not sure if there would be a disadvantage of doing this would this be a better way of doing this you think? this way I'm using the flow of the tank water for the refugium and at some point this month I'll be able to add my Clarisea to the same pipe.

here is a picture of what I'm thinking of doing.

 

[phatduckk]

I actually built a light shade out of acrylic to prevent the fuge light from spilling over to the other chambers...
it was super simple: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/simple-red-sea-reefer-350-refugium-light-blocker.662374/