40 Breeder Sump & Refugium Design

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
If your going to put rock right there then I would have the baffle sitting on the bottom to contain it. I’m not sure if a marine pure block will stand up to a skimmer sitting on top of it. I would lose the second bubble trap by the chaeto and forget about the miracle mud.

This is what I have built so far. Also, that acrylic silicone hold pretty dang well, much better than expected.

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
If your going to put rock right there then I would have the baffle sitting on the bottom to contain it. I’m not sure if a marine pure block will stand up to a skimmer sitting on top of it. I would lose the second bubble trap by the chaeto and forget about the miracle mud.

Also, yeah I'm going with Marine Pure in the fuge, and nowhere else. After learning more about it via this thread, I've decided that it wasn't necessary. I will perhaps use some type of stand for the skimmer if required though.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

You can use egg crate to raise the skimmer up. Not sure what you have going on with that filter sock holder. It looks like there are holes in the top lip part of it. Wouldn’t the highest baffle set the water height? So if the baffle on the bubble trap is higher then the holes on the lip to the filter sock holder I would think the water would sit above the holes. I could be totally wrong. I wouldn’t have put those holes in the lip. I would have set the water height for the skimmer using the bubble traps first baffle. Then I would have made the lip higher then that. The water could then go out at the height of the bubble trap baffle and not get into the top of the filter sock holder. In any case I wouldn’t have put holes in that lip. As long as water can spill over the top and not make flood it’s all good. You should be changing the socks out every few days so there is no way that side should plug enough to flood in the first place.

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
You can use egg crate to raise the skimmer up. Not sure what you have going on with that filter sock holder. It looks like there are holes in the top lip part of it. Wouldn’t the highest baffle set the water height? So if the baffle on the bubble trap is higher then the holes on the lip to the filter sock holder I would think the water would sit above the holes. I could be totally wrong. I wouldn’t have put those holes in the lip. I would have set the water height for the skimmer using the bubble traps first baffle. Then I would have made the lip higher then that. The water could then go out at the height of the bubble trap baffle and not get into the top of the filter sock holder. In any case I wouldn’t have put holes in that lip. As long as water can spill over the top and not make flood it’s all good. You should be changing the socks out every few days so there is no way that side should plug enough to flood in the first place.

The holes are in case the cups get blocked to allow the water to bypass the mechanical filtration. I'll know if works when I go to test it next weekend. I'm giving it a week to fully cure. This is what it looks like with the components in place:

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

As long as the lip is higher then the baffle it doesn’t matter. Looks like you have carbon in those cup things. I would have gone with felt filter socks and a carbon reactor. Felt will trap more debris and a reactor will work at a higher efficiency then just putting bags in the sump not that what you have done won’t work.

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
As long as the lip is higher then the baffle it doesn’t matter. Looks like you have carbon in those cup things. I would have gone with felt filter socks and a carbon reactor. Felt will trap more debris and a reactor will work at a higher efficiency then just putting bags in the sump not that what you have done won’t work.

I've read that the slits on the cups can get clogged with media at times, but I have tons of filter floss, and other filter accessories so I'm sure I'll figure something out. Worst case, I replace the cups with socks and life goes on.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

DirtDiggler2823 said:
I've read that the slits on the cups can get clogged with media at times, but I have tons of filter floss, and other filter accessories so I'm sure I'll figure something out. Worst case, I replace the cups with socks and life goes on.

That’s not the reason I would go with felt. I would do that for a tighter filter. I would think stuff is to make it though those cups. If you put floss in them then they will probably be fine but floss is going to have to be changed out. Probably thrown out vs cleaning and drying filter socks.

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
That’s not the reason I would go with felt. I would do that for a tighter filter. I would think stuff is to make it though those cups. If you put floss in them then they will probably be fine but floss is going to have to be changed out. Probably thrown out vs cleaning and drying filter socks.

I'm OK with that. I'm going to give this a spin for now, but if things don't go well, I'll switch over to the felt socks. I have a long time before anything alive goes into my tank, so I can experiment a little bit without risking livestock. I also don't have any space under my tank with this sump, so anything that is not in the sump, is difficult to incorporate, so I'm not sure I'd be able to use any additional reactors or equipment.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

My guess is it’s a question of cost. People probably can’t clean floss effectively so it has to be thrown away. Most people don’t use that stuff.

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
My guess is it’s a question of cost. People probably can’t clean floss effectively so it has to be thrown away. Most people don’t use that stuff.

I use it on my freshwater tanks, and I have no issues cleaning it.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

I’m sure there’s a reason why people don’t use that stuff. For one thing you can get away with more detritus in a fresh system then a saltwater system with coral.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/filter-floss-vs-socks.211472/

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
I’m sure there’s a reason why people don’t use that stuff. For one thing you can get away with more detritus in a fresh system then a saltwater system with coral.

I've read through that, and you're right, freshwater tanks can get away with different things than what I imagine a reef tank can. It's no loss either way. Switching from one to the other isn't an issue, honestly. If it works, great. If not, I can change them out.

Reef-junky · Sep 3, 2018

As long as you change it out it doesn’t matter to the tank. Like I said it’s probably a question of cost. The socks can probably be cleaned better and last longer. A lot of people would say let the skimmer take it all out and don’t run anything. There are people that run these things

DirtDiggler2823 · Sep 3, 2018

Reef-junky said:
As long as you change it out it doesn’t matter to the tank. Like I said it’s probably a question of cost. The socks can probably be cleaned better and last longer. A lot of people would say let the skimmer take it all out and don’t run anything. There are people that run these things

I've seen the roller mat setups. They seem complicated. Worst case is the cups don't work like I hoped, and we go to socks, or nothing at all. This is a very low risk decision.