Side by side sump/refugium.

[Christian]

Hey guys, first off I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm relatively new to the area and will always feel new to the reefing hobby. I currently have a 60 gallon aquarium that has been up and running for about 5-6 months now. Shallow sand bed(.25-.5") and ~50# live rock. Current livestock includes a black ice snowflake clownfish, diamond goby, peppermint shrimp and skunk cleaner shrimp. I'm using 2 sunspect 165W leds and only have soft corals. Now where the slight issue/question begins. I'm currently running a aquamaxx HOB-1 protein skimmer and a HOB filter(sigh). My tank isn't drilled and I'm not very keen on building/plumbing my own sump/refugium as I've heard all the horror stories about flooding. My idea was to use my 10 gallon aquarium and place it side by side with the 60 gallon display tank so I can grow copepods for a future psychedelic mandarin. Without having them on different levels I know that I can't use gravity to plumb them together. So what if I just took two smaller pumps and put one in the display and one in the sump. I feel as though that eliminates my biggest fear of flooding on a loss of power or equipment failure, barring a break of the glass itself. If anyone has any experience/input or even another idea it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Christian

[sushi]

Hey guys, first off I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm relatively new to the area and will always feel new to the reefing hobby. I currently have a 60 gallon aquarium that has been up and running for about 5-6 months now. Shallow sand bed(.25-.5") and ~50# live rock. Current livestock includes a black ice snowflake clownfish, diamond goby, peppermint shrimp and skunk cleaner shrimp. I'm using 2 sunspect 165W leds and only have soft corals. Now where the slight issue/question begins. I'm currently running a aquamaxx HOB-1 protein skimmer and a HOB filter(sigh). My tank isn't drilled and I'm not very keen on building/plumbing my own sump/refugium as I've heard all the horror stories about flooding. My idea was to use my 10 gallon aquarium and place it side by side with the 60 gallon display tank so I can grow copepods for a future psychedelic mandarin. Without having them on different levels I know that I can't use gravity to plumb them together. So what if I just took two smaller pumps and put one in the display and one in the sump. I feel as though that eliminates my biggest fear of flooding on a loss of power or equipment failure, barring a break of the glass itself. If anyone has any experience/input or even another idea it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Christian

The pumps would have to pump the EXACT same amount of water (impossible) for that to work. I thought about doing something like this before, and always came to the conclusion that I would need to pump water out of my main tank up into the small refugium, and have it overflow back down into the main tank via gravity. So that means the upper tank would need to be drilled. Since it is just a 10 gallon, it might be easy to drill, and it won't be very expensive if you mess it up trying to drill it.

[Kris]

You can grow copepods in the 10 gallon and fish them out to feed your main tank without having these connected.

[FDdragon]

First, welcome.

Don't let these horror stories discourage you. Plumbing them would be very easy and there are a lot of ways to set it up so that you don't get flooded should there be a leak or fail somewhere.


Drilling towards the top back wall will only allow a little bit of water to drain and keeping the return slightly below water level (or right at the surface to also help with surface current) will also prevent a lot of siphon in case of power outage.

[cshplumber]

What is the HOB filter? Does it siphon into filter and pump back to pump? Could it siphon into filter, drain into 10gal & pump into display?

[Christian]

The HOB filter is a marineland penguin 350B power filter. I have some carbon bags in it and a nitrate pad that I replace every week or two. I don't think he physical layout of the filter will allow me to draw from one tank and send into the other.

[cshplumber]

No. Pump draws water up & out of tank where it overflows the filter housing and flows back into tank. Can't really mod skimmer either.
I would just get a small overflow box and plumb it to the fuge where a small pump could pump back to the main. Pods would have to take a wild ride through pump back to tank but that's just like in any under tank sump with a fuge. At this point fuge could be under the stand (as long as pump can handle the head pressure) or vissible as a display fuge next to main tank but basically water has to pump 1 way and drain/siphon the other.

[Christian]

If I were to use an overflow box and my 10 gallon tank as an entire sump rather than just a refugium, what overflow box and pump combo would you guys recommend? The top of my tank is about 4'6" off the ground. The 10 gallon won't fit in the stand so it would either be on the floor or I could put it on a small stand itself. As far as plumbing considerations, should I use PVC or a flexible hose material? A ball valve in the return line to throttle flow from the pump? A check valve to prevent suction from the tank back through the return line? Anything I'm forgetting?

[cshplumber]

I think I would just get a stand that a sump (bigger is better) will fit and get a sump with overflow system. In the event of a power outage, overflow will only drain top 1/2"-1" of water and with proper placement of return spray bar (or a well placed "anti siphon" hole) you shouldn't get much more water to backflow from tank. Don't rely on a mechanical valve (check/swing) to keep sump from flooding.
HOB equipment is where most of us started but you can only HOB so much stuff. I have a HOB fuge if you want to buy it but sounds like it would really be HOS (Hang On Side). Stop the madness and move up to a sump.

[FDdragon]

I use pvc but I know lots of people on here use flexible. It does have its advantages so it is handy to use.

I use ball valves as well since I can use it to throttle (just as you mentioned). I also have a check valve buy I don't relay on those at all! Many fail so I just stick to manual means of preventing flooding.

I drilled a small hole on the top of return line (inside the display tank) in case of power outage. If power fails the return line will act as a siphon and bring all the water into the sump (inside your case a 10g tank). this could be a very bad day.

The hole I drilled stops the siphon as soon as the water level gets below the hole. That's why I put it on the top part of the pvc line (Actually on the elbow is where I put mine).

Just be careful because you will have a very small stream wow water coming out so don't make the hole too big.

I'll try to post a video on mine later tonight.

[cshplumber]

And be careful of where the hole points.

[FDdragon]

True. Too big and they can shoot small streams onto the wall...which could end up down to the outlet....which could be bad. Ha ha.

I put mine so the point towards the water. The holes are actually right below water level so you don't notice.

[cshplumber]

Ditto. Simple thing that's often overlooked.

[Meccaman96]

What is the HOB filter? Does it siphon into filter and pump back to pump? Could it siphon into filter, drain into 10gal & pump into display?

Great idea.

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