sump refuge designs

[di0nysus]

hi,
i have a 50g tank im slowly putting together and i was really interested in doing a display refuge on the side of the main tank and have it gravity feed back to the main tank. was also thinking of adding a couple dwarf sea horses in there too ? and have a simple sump on the boottom of the tank. does anyone know of any sites that can help me out w/ this. im not much of a plumber so i need all the help i can get. one other question is:
if i had the refugium being gravity fed to main tank wouldnt that just cause micro bubbles and such?

 

[epond83]

the only thing i can contrubit is that the microbubles would depend on how the water reentered the tank, if it dropped a ways and caused a lot of surface agiation then i would think it would cause some.

But if the water fell a short distance then i think you would be ok, especailly since the water would be flowing slowly through the refuge and would have minimal bubles in it to start with.

 

[1979camaro]

There is some good general sump info here: Melevsreef.com - Welcome!

As for the refugium, I agree with epond83, I don't think you will have micro bubble problems. To keep seahorses in the refugium I think you will want a pretty good sized tank so you may want to think about whether or not you will actually have room for it, but it seems feasible with good planning.

 

[TRe]

the micro bubbles will all depend on what size pump u go with... i belive seahorses require low flow so u should be alright as far as micro bubbles

 

[di0nysus]

well in the mean time im going to be using a 40g sump/refuge and was wondering if this was a good enough design for it.

 

[epond83]

where is your skimmer going to be set up? before the bubble trap i hope, also rememebr all your evaporation is going to show up in the last chamber with the pump. And lastly i'm new at this so that just my observation.

 

[TRe]

looks fine other than that u dont wanna have the equipment in the return section unless u have an ato since that where the water level will fluctuate