Been trying to keep a small (55ga) tank w/ a few fish and some coral. Been at it a few years, but much time on road made proper attention difficult. Retired now, recently back from an Australian vacation, snorkeled on Great Barrier Reef, and found out what it's really like. With rekindled enthusiasm, I have purchased a 29ga glass tank, got plexi baffles, skimmer,bio balls, hang on overflow box, return pump and misc plumbing parts. Have done some research on sump/refuge design, but am confused as to best configuration. I woul greatly appreciate any guidance as I stand, silicone at the ready.
flipc-Yank semi-newbie
- Thread starter flipc
- Start date
Singularity
Hmmm amper!
Hi and welcome flipc
Welcome to MASA…... 
Welcome
welcome !!!!
The guy is asking for advise and everyone is welcoming him without giving advise-are you guys too scared to give advise??? 
Btw, welcome to the Forum
Btw, welcome to the Forum
Tobes
Retired Moderator
Welcome to MASA, glad you joined us. Wow, that must've been some experience diving THE REEF! You got any pictures about it? We love pics
Can you also post pics about the tank? The simplest design on sumps is one with 3 chambers.
1st - inlet from tank and skimmer
2nd - deep sand bed, or live rock or macro algae with light or mixed for a refugium
3rd - return chamber for return pump and auto top up level switch, etc
If you want a DSB, make the area as big as possible
If you want to keep corals again, I would advise you to ditch the bio-balls. They only convert ammonia to nitrites and to nitrates. They don't complete the nitrogen cycle to the full like a DSB. With bio-balls the nitrates will go up and up and that is bad for invertebrates and corals.
Here is a pic of my previous sump with 3 chambers
And here was my nano sump
flipc
Thanks to all for welcome, and especially to "TOBES" for pics and info. I will glue up partitions in my setup per your pics, ditch the bio-balls, plumb it up, report on progress (?) later. Thanks again
Thanks to all for welcome, and especially to "TOBES" for pics and info. I will glue up partitions in my setup per your pics, ditch the bio-balls, plumb it up, report on progress (?) later. Thanks again
Tobes
Retired Moderator
In my sump pics you'll notice that the last partition (the one closest to the return chamber) is about 20mm lower than the one against the skimmer. You'll also see that I put pvc pipe that I cut in the lenght on the first partition to prevent the water going over to stirr up the sand bed, kinda like a gutter. Here are some pics of my idea - it worked
