Double sump reef system

[KStatefan]

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I was going to say that Jeff @ Lifereef makes all of his refugiums separate. How do you like the lifereef skimmer? Is it as good as he claims? He'd building my gear this November.

I am still cycling and have nothing to skim yet

 

[nathanm]

I went with a double sump on my second system, mostly due to availability issues of larger tanks at the time. Both tanks are 36x18x18 and are joined together by 2 50mm bulk heads (internal pipe measurement). I also made up a rubber gasket between the tanks and used a small amount of silicone on the bulk heads.

 

[kenbennedy]

I love my dual sump system. I have a 125 gallon tank. I have a Simplicity 30 gallon sump on the left side - the filter sock was replaced with a roller mat, the refugium section is set to run very slow so it acts as a settling tank, then it goes to my return pump - my dosers are running into this section. My right sump is a DIY from a 29 gallon long. It has the return coming down into a 2 gallon tank which is full of live rock. The rest of the tank is dedicated to my DIY algae scrubber and the return pump. The 2 sides are connected with a water bridge. The layout is slightly different - these pictures are pre-roller mat. The plastic basket is sitting on the cover for the filter sock - that is gone now and replaced with the roller mat in this section. The light for the algae scrubber is now also properly mounted above the scrubber and the bridge has been lifted onto hooks so it's not sitting on the bottom of sumps. Each sump has a return from the tank coming down into it and a return pump back to the tank. The bridge maintains equal water level in both sumps.

Do you run an air pump on the water bridge in case the siphon breaks during a power outage?

 

[Rjramos]

Interesting thread cause I have 3 set ups currently running double stack sump style. The first time I did this was on the 65 gal peninsula in 1998. I did this cause I wanted to add a fairly large size refugium to an already running Berlin set up ( live rock and skimmer) and keep it all inside the cabinet. I designed it to where a single return pump runs everything including an old Top Fathom skimmer. Water coming from display overflow is tee’d and gated below. Most water goes to the refugium while the lesser amount goes straight to the main pump sump below. The refugium above the main sump,drains into it by gravity on the opposite end. One thing to mention, all my cabinets were made tall at 40” to make for plenty of vertical space inside. In addition, the refugium sump and pump sump were custom made out of plexiglas to accommodate the right fit inside. The plumbing was tight but possible. 40 inch tall cabinet, but the footprint was only 48”x13”. The refugium sump is 30”x8”x9” tall. The bottom sump is like 16”x 12”. When pump goes off it is able to handle the tanks overflow and the refugiums overflow capacity. This is that set up still running today. Split return to the top right . External pump to the right bottom. External skimmer on the left side, drains into lower sump.

I enjoyed this set up so much that my 120 gal display and a 120 gal frag grow out were designed very similarly but with more space and bigger sumps and pumps.
Here is the 120 gal behind the doors.

External MRC skimmer to the left. External pump to right, pumps to skimmer and display turnover. Refugium above and in this case, partially staggered back to allow bottom sump access.

The plumbing, split drain manifold and returns from pump.

120 going since 2006.
My most current set up April 2018,was a pair of 60 gal low boys set up for frags and colony grow out.
This was easier, since both tanks got a separate cabinet, this giving me more area underneath, the height is still 40”
In this case the refugium is not over the pump sump at all, it is elevated to provide drain into it.

Elevated refugium and 25 gal top off tank.

External return pump on left. External pump and skimmer on right.
Custom sump fabrication has been essential to make all of these systems possible. It also helps to have a taller cabinet to allow for gravity from one sump to the other and still have room to work inside. An internal skimmer that needs to be removed can become a problem if you don’t have clearance above it.
I always measure, and draw everything to scale to allow for needed clearances before I begin putting it all together.