68 Gallon Rimless Reef Build

[zhasan]

Hey Guys, looking to get some feedback on my sump design.

Here is what I'm thinking of doing.



I want to know if 10" height for the baffels good or should I decrease it to prevent potential overflowing.

Also, is it better to have a sand bed in the fuge or LR rubble?

I'll be using a phosphate reactor on my tank, will a fuge with chatoe be redundant?

[Skimmerking]

i would leave the refuge the height like 10.5 and the the baffles have like 3 under over and under keep them around 8" y9ou want ot have somewhat a drain off too like you stated.

However its going to depend on how much water drains off after the pumps shuts down. you can always have a small hole drilled into the return line. Just above the water line so the siphon breaks the water there.

[zhasan]

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

i would leave the refuge the height like 10.5 and the the baffles have like 3 under over and under keep them around 8" y9ou want ot have somewhat a drain off too like you stated.

However its going to depend on how much water drains off after the pumps shuts down. you can always have a small hole drilled into the return line. Just above the water line so the siphon breaks the water there.

The drain in my tank has a little whole at the top with a plastic tube sticking out of it. So I don't think there will be much water draining down as soon as the power goes off. I guess I'll have to check the depth of the drain and the water level I'll keep to calculate the amount of water that might drain down.

[gregzz4]

Mike was referring to a hole in the return line to prevent backsiphoning of the DT
The siphon will break wherever you drill the hole, instead of it siphoning to the bottom of your return outlet
If you go this route, keep in mind that the drilled hole will be spraying water while your return pump is on, so plan where you want it pointing

[zhasan]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Mike was referring to a hole in the return line to prevent backsiphoning of the DT
The siphon will break wherever you drill the hole, instead of it siphoning to the bottom of your return outlet
If you go this route, keep in mind that the drilled hole will be spraying water while your return pump is on, so plan where you want it pointing

Oh I see. My return line also has a hole on top of it.

And I had no idea about the hole spraying water while the pump is on... I'll have to take a look into it. I think I'll clean my tank today and take a few pics and show you guys what my tank's return line and drain pipe looks like!

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by zhasan

or should I decrease it to prevent potential overflowing

Are you referring to baffle overflows, or total volume flooding ?

Depending on what your gph over the baffle will be, you potentially could go almost right to the trim
A 12" wide baffle can handle around 800gph and have a film of less than 1/2" of water

My baffles are almost 18" wide
I only left myself 1/4" from my highest baffle to the underside of the plastic trim
When my el-cheapo socks plugged up, the baffle still handled the flow from both my Eheim 1262 return pump (8-900gph), Compact 2000 (225gph) and 2 MJ600s through reactors

[gregzz4]

If I misunderstood, and you are worried about overflowing of total system volume during power off, I'd go with a bigger return area as that's where all the extra water is going to end up
Your current design only allows for about 3.6g (if it's a 12" wide tank)

[zhasan]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Are you referring to baffle overflows, or total volume flooding ?

Depending on what your gph over the baffle will be, you potentially could go almost right to the trim
A 12" wide baffle can handle around 800gph and have a film of less than 1/2" of water

My baffles are almost 18" wide
I only left myself 1/4" from my highest baffle to the underside of the plastic trim
When my el-cheapo socks plugged up, the baffle still handled the flow from both my Eheim 1262 return pump (8-900gph), Compact 2000 (225gph) and 2 MJ600s through reactors

Originally Posted by gregzz4

If I misunderstood, and you are worried about overflowing of total system volume during power off, I'd go with a bigger return area as that's where all the extra water is going to end up
Your current design only allows for about 3.6g (if it's a 12" wide tank)

Greg you're right! I was worried about the total system overflowing during power off because it happens in my area often for some odd reason.

What I don't know about is how much water will actually be in the return area constantly when the system is running... is there a way for me to figure that out before setting everything up?

I really like how you did your sump. Very well planned out! unfortunately I don't have a lot of realestate to play with here.

If I have to increase my return chamber size the only way thats possible is if I reduce the size of the refugium. I don't know what the best or at least minimum size of refugium I'd need on my system. Or is it best to go as big as you can?

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by zhasan

What I don't know about is how much water will actually be in the return area constantly when the system is running... is there a way for me to figure that out before setting everything up?

If you are using your ATO then the level in the return section should remain pretty constant as this is the only chamber that fluctuates due to evap. (your ATO water will also go into the return chamber).The level will be what ever you set it at by filling the tank with water until it is all filled to your liking.

Assuming your sump tank is 12" and your baffles remain at 10" high you will have about 6 1/2 to 7 gallons of room for your display water to drain into the sump before it over flows.

To calculate how much water will flow from the DT to the sump when the return pump is off measure from the top of the water column down to where the siphon break would be to get your height measuremnet in inches. Now measure the length and width of the tank in inches. L x W x H to get volume in cubic inches and then divide this number by 231 to get gallons.

[gregzz4]

Besides the good advice given while I was writing this letter

What I don't know about is how much water will actually be in the return area constantly when the system is running... is there a way for me to figure that out before setting everything up?

You set the level in the return area yourself. Enough to keep the return pump from sucking air right before the ATO tops it off is enough to keep the system running. While this isn't an ideal situation, it will give you an idea of how much room you have for powerouts

If I have to increase my return chamber size the only way thats possible is if I reduce the size of the refugium. I don't know what the best or at least minimum size of refugium I'd need on my system. Or is it best to go as big as you can?

If you were to run only chaeto, you could go anywhere from 8 to 12 inches cubed. You want to run a DSB and I have no experience with them, so someone else will have to help you here

I really like how you did your sump. Very well planned out! unfortunately I don't have a lot of realestate to play with here.

Thanks, but I reconfigured it 4 times, so not so well planned out
I built, then tested, then re-built etc

I see you have a 16" tall tank. I suggest you use as much of that height as you can. You'll need to build a stand for your skimmer, but ...
You'll increase your return area by 2g or so, depending on the height of your baffles. This may be all the powerout room you need. Plus, this will increase your total system volume
Hopefully others with a sump similar to yours will chime in ...

What I did was decide what skimmer I'd want to buy in the future and made that chamber as narrow as possible. I also built it as high as possible
I didn't plan on a DSB, so I built a small hang-inside tank for chaeto (later I built it remote). This allowed me to have it be part of the return area which freed up lots of extra volume for powerouts and total return chamber size