Mangroves

[nonstophoops]

While its best to feed a fuge nutrient rich water, its best to have a skimmer before the fuge, that way all your little copepods and amphipods that bread in your fuge dont get sucked up by the skimmer, on their way to the tank.

Thats my two cents.

I agree you don't want pods in the skimmer so they make it to the tank. With the setup I propose they don't go to the skimmer after the refuge for that reason. The skimmed water goes directly to the return pump. The refuge water goes directly to the return pump too. The return pump is in between them and water is being feed to both ends.

I posted a picture of it in my thread.

 

[enwelz]

Good point on the skimmer. I really don't get 3 full overflows with the beananimal overflow, one is a full 1" siphon, then one is a trickle, and the 3rd is an emergency oveflow, however in a disaster situation they all will run at a 1" full siphon. I can always split the main pipe to each end of the sump. I will put some thought into the 2 sides flowing to the middle! Should I run filter socks on the side with the skimmer?

 

[nonstophoops]

Good point on the skimmer. I really don't get 3 full overflows with the beananimal overflow, one is a full 1" siphon, then one is a trickle, and the 3rd is an emergency oveflow, however in a disaster situation they all will run at a 1" full siphon. I can always split the main pipe to each end of the sump. I will put some thought into the 2 sides flowing to the middle! Should I run filter socks on the side with the skimmer?

Oh ya thats right. You could definitely split the tube or just go with a more conventional footprint.

I would put a filter sock on the skimmer side, just make sure you clean/change it frequently.

 

[enwelz]

Oh ya thats right. You could definitely split the tube or just go with a more conventional footprint.

I would put a filter sock on the skimmer side, just make sure you clean/change it frequently.

So how much flow should I be shooting for through the sump? I would like to house stoney corals once this has been running for a long while, so from what I have read, you should aim for 20xvolume of water per hour total flow (including powerheads and such). Since I can add powerheads to increase my flow in the display, what would the ideal rate of flow be for my refugium?

 

[nonstophoops]

So how much flow should I be shooting for through the sump? I would like to house stoney corals once this has been running for a long while, so from what I have read, you should aim for 20xvolume of water per hour total flow (including powerheads and such). Since I can add powerheads to increase my flow in the display, what would the ideal rate of flow be for my refugium?

As much as possible. It will depend on the overflow hole sizes. They will decide what the maximum flow can be. What size are they?

Like you said you need 20x so 2,000 gallons or more. I would try to get at least 1,000 flowing through the sump in total. More if it is possible.

As far as running through the refugium goes, I would try to get about a 3rd of the water going through there. Maybe 350 gallons or a little more. Doesn't really have to be exact, but if it flows too fast the macro algae may struggle.

 

[enwelz]

The beananimal overflow I am considering has a 1" full siphon, a 1"trickle, a 1" emergency, and if the water level gets high enough all 3 will start to siphon. I plan to have a trough run the length of the tank (60") to maximize the amount of surface area skimmed of the top. My understanding is this is where most of the organic matter is in marine environment.

The trough will consist of 2 peices of plexi in an L shape in the top corner, about 4" tall and 3 in deep.

This should, as far as I can tell, be able to handle an aweful lot of flow. This link states it can easily handle 2000gph without even getting the 3rd pipe wet, but I don't know that to be correct.

Edit: Link.... http://beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

 

[nonstophoops]

The beananimal overflow I am considering has a 1" full siphon, a 1"trickle, a 1" emergency, and if the water level gets high enough all 3 will start to siphon. I plan to have a trough run the length of the tank (60") to maximize the amount of surface area skimmed of the top. My understanding is this is where most of the organic matter is in marine environment.

The trough will consist of 2 peices of plexi in an L shape in the top corner, about 4" tall and 3 in deep.

This should, as far as I can tell, be able to handle an aweful lot of flow. This link states it can easily handle 2000gph without even getting the 3rd pipe wet, but I don't know that to be correct.

Edit: Link.... http://beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

Should be a really nice setup. You are correct that proteins are attrated to the surface of the water. That is why protein skimmers work. The proteins attach to the surface area of the bubbles made by the skimmer.

Usually, 1" bulkheads can handle about 350 gph. If you get a siphon effect going and the water is actually being pulled down it can get up to almost 1,000 gph. I would not bank on this happening though. So realistically you probably will want to have 2 of the bulkheads running full to get you around 700 gph. These numbers are again without any turns or horizontal run, so you would actually have less flow than that depending on your plumbing.

 

[enwelz]

Take a look at the link if you haven't already, it shows that they size the 1 inch bulkhead up to 1 1/2" before it turns down to the downpipe. The pipes also have valves so you can adjust it to maintain the siphon. How does the increase in size affect the flow? Should I up it to 1 1/2" all the way through? I don't want to get too big of a pipe in the trough, because ill have to make it bigger taking up more display room.

Has anyone ever owned a beananimal? Maybe I should start a new thread, getting away from mangroves lol

 

[nonstophoops]

Take a look at the link if you haven't already, it shows that they size the 1 inch bulkhead up to 1 1/2" before it turns down to the downpipe. The pipes also have valves so you can adjust it to maintain the siphon. How does the increase in size affect the flow? Should I up it to 1 1/2" all the way through? I don't want to get too big of a pipe in the trough, because ill have to make it bigger taking up more display room.

Has anyone ever owned a beananimal? Maybe I should start a new thread, getting away from mangroves lol

Having read the link now, I think that you will be able to get a much higher level of flow than a normal setup like I was referring to previously. I would still with these fittings, they should be plenty for your setup. Really good writeup by the way, thanks for the link!

New thread may be a good idea to get responses on this.

 

[enwelz]

Having read the link now, I think that you will be able to get a much higher level of flow than a normal setup like I was referring to previously. I would still with these fittings, they should be plenty for your setup. Really good writeup by the way, thanks for the link!

New thread may be a good idea to get responses on this.

Yea that link sold me on it when someone in another thread posted it! It made me decide to set up the tank in saltwater instead of having a 50gal salt with a 100 gal fresh. It appears to be a solid setup, but there is only one way to find out