Sump Advice

But my question is how do you have a 30 gallon sump with no sump?

 

haha that makes more sence! =-)

 

I think your idea looks good. I have two refugiums on my tank and swear by them. I have cheato and a few mangroves as well. For lighting I just bought two 20$ led lights from menards and my cheato is dark green and grows like a weed, plus I have an insane amount of pods. good luck and looking good so far!

 

you could always widden the refugium area to 15 inches and make the second baffle a couple inches taller so you can fit more cheato and a couple mangroves. My refugium on my 56g setup is a 5 gallon HOB. I put 2 inches of fiji refugium mud in the bottom with half an inch of sand over the top, a little bit of rubble rock and started with a baseball size of cheato.

I now have a watermellon sized clump and thousands of various types of pods crawling around. I would give the fiji mud a shot, i saw a big difference in PE on my sps after adding it. maybe go with 2 inches of mud and an inch or so of sand. Good luck!

 

The return pump section...the way it's drawn up will hold about 2.7 gals of water. Assuming you will never want the water level to get below 5" in that chamber for the return pump that only leaves 1.36 gallons for evaporation...and in my sump i've seen anywhere from 1-2 gallons go in a day based on the humidity in the house. Just a thought...

 

I would also put bubble traps in so the flow will not put air back in the DT.  Also with that large of a tank wouldnt a bigger say 55 be a better option?

 

i have several sumps to pick from

 

i have several sumps to pick from