Basement sump room Skimmer placement

[mvallee]

I am planning a basement sump room and thought I had something figured out that now I am questioning.
The goal of this setup is to create a fuge that can produce pods and copepods in numbers that will support dragonettes and wrasses in the main DT.

My plan was to have my 180 gallon mixed reef DT dump into a RR 120 to 150 gallon tank that would act as a large refugium, Macro's LR, Deep sand bed type setup. This would dump into a 100+ gallon trough type container like I see lots of folks using. I was going to build out a chamber for the skimmer, reactors and LR while adding volume and I feel this will give me plenty of buffer for power outages from the two tanks in front of it.

Now the dilemma, reading up on sump designs I've come to the conclusion I need to get the Skimmer in front of both of these so I am skimming raw tank water and leaving the pods I will be cultivating in the refugium intact so would need a third tank to dump raw water into with a skimmer then the fuge and then the trough, doing this increases my points of failure, added maintenance and I was hoping to gravity feed from the fuge to the sump with the return pump up to the main DT this would add another gravity feed tank and think this is starting to push the limits. still not a deal breaker but I feel like I am missing something in this plan.

The idea I am tossing around; I could take the trough and sort of break it up into sections one with the skimmer that the raw tank water dumps into then a whatever section for reactors more LR and a smaller return pump feeding the Fuge, the fuge would then flow back into the return pump chamber of the trough sump and up to the DT.
The thing I like about this is the ability to shut flow off to the fuge so I can actually feed this fuge on a regular basis with Phyto that I am also planning on cultivating which I hear can really increase Pod production.

I realize there are many ways to skin this cat and I am not looking to reinvent the wheel just hoping for some tried and true solutions. any thoughts on my current design thought would be appreciated.

 

[this is me]

I would split the drain from the 180DT into the trough for skimmer and the other line into the 150 fuge. The 150 would drain into the trough near your return pump to the DT.
IME, it's very important for the skimmer(at least mine) to get the raw DT water to skim efficiently.

 

[cilyjr]

IME, it's very important for the skimmer(at least mine) to get the raw DT water to skim efficiently.

../agree. I recently rebuilt my tank my recirc skimmer is fed directly from a DT drain. I now empty the skimmer every 3 days down from weekly

 

[reefstarter]

an easy way to seperate the skimmer chamber is drop in a rubbermaid tote and set the skimmer in that with a drain line from DT entering it there . personally I just sit the skimmer right in the sump no baffles or anything with some rock . works fine

 

[mvallee]

I would split the drain from the 180DT into the trough for skimmer and the other line into the 150 fuge. The 150 would drain into the trough near your return pump to the DT.
IME, it's very important for the skimmer(at least mine) to get the raw DT water to skim efficiently.

With dual overflows it would be easy enough to have one for fuge and other for trough, good idea, not overly complicated and no additional points of failure just some extra PVC and parts, sounds like a winner, Thanks.

 

[Curren007K]

I went the basement sump room route as well.
My 180 main display has two drains plumbed into a 20G Rubbermaid tote for the skimmer which then drains into a 150G Rubbermaid stock tank.