Side by side sump/water bridge proof of concept.

[MoshJosh]

Wanted to add a sump/refugium to my nano. . . Cause yeah. Space under tank was limited. Space in the tank for an overflow was also limited. . . This is what I came up with. . .

obviously there’s some work to be done, but this is just a proof of concept.

 

[Chrisv.]

Is there a pump on each side?

 

[MoshJosh]

Is there a pump on each side?

Yes, but I’m using a water bridge to return the water between the tanks. I haven’t got all the equipment yet, but both tanks will run as normal all in one tanks, the smaller one will just grow algae. And then there will be an extra pump that runs water into the display and a Waterbridge that brings it back

i’m using this aqua clear hang on back replacement piece is the bridge. I might set up 2, just in case one fails at some point/loses siphon

 

[blaxsun]

In theory it should work. You just have to be careful with the syphon; if it stops working, you'll flood the main tank.

 

[MoshJosh]

In theory it should work. You just have to be careful with the syphon; if it stops working, you'll flood the main tank.

Yeah, I figure I could try and rig up a PVC overflow, still trying to figure out how to make one that looks decent. I also plan on mounting the pump fairly high in the tank so in the event that the bridge fails I’ll only flood my house a little bit

 

[Chrisv.]

Brave, lol

 

[MoshJosh]

so here is what I came up with:



in theory. . . The display pump pushes 90 gph into the display. That goes into the overflow and through the mechanic filtration. Then half of that water goes into the “sump” and the other half goes through the biological filtration and back into the display.

In the “sump” the pump pushes 90gph into the chaeto. That goes into the “sump” overflow where it passes through chemical filtration. Half of the water is pumped over to the display, and half goes back to the chaeto.

basically both tanks run independently at 90 gph and they are connected with a 50 gph pump and water bridge

 

[#15]

Hey hows this working out im thinking if trying this but maybe with a better bridge and no pump in the refug

 

[MoshJosh]

It worked pretty darn good until I tore the tank down to get a bigger tank! I wasn’t successful with everything I tried to grow in it, but grew enough that I had a bunch of frags for the local fish store after the tear down.

 

[#15]

Nice i wanna butt a simalar refug to my nano fluval 7 gal but im looking at better waterbridge methods

 

[OrionN]

It is much simpler to set it one higher than the other and just use gravity to drain back i series. I think it is easiest to just have two pumps two tanks and share the same sump. You can always have problem with suction loss with air bubble, algae producing gas and other.