Refuge in cellar

[MajorJoey]

I am new to this forum and offer a heLL0!

1st post-----------

My question is thus===>
I will be building a 90gal reef tank
my plan is to locate the Refuge in the basement, The display 90gal will be on the 1st floor
I will place the fuge close to the ceiling so as to minimize the distance between display and fuge for a head pressure gain.
I will mark and make hole to pass lines and such.

one of the benifts I was hoping top reap was that the cellar is cooler all year round
ambient temps___>summer highs in the cellar are 72F
and winter lows will be 50F
I thought this would be a good chiller,
It would be easier to work on things in the cellar as well.
Is this a bad idea?
thX in advance!
I luv this forum!!!BtW

 

[Snowboarda42]

you might need to run two huge pumps for the pressure loss, otherwise I can't think of too many cons to it....

 

[Anonymous]

MajorJoey

:welcome:

I think it's a great idea

 

[MajorJoey]

thanks glad to Be Here

 

[rbursek]

MJ,
I have my fuge in the basement, I have a 125 gal, it is on a stand that is 24" high, and the tank has All Glass Megaflows, I have the fuge/sump on a stand so that there is about 8ft of head between the return pump and the top of the Megaflow, I use a Mag drive 18 with no problems and good flow. I estimate I have about 1000 gph flow.
Bob

 

[MajorJoey]

One of the things that I have just read about that might be one of the negatives other than larger pump
- that it seems that the Refuge is optimized if it has a gravity feed on the filtered side of the fuge , this is usually done by having the Fuge placed above or higher than the display tank
as my display tank will be 1st floor and fugE basement I will have to pump to 1st floor,
of note , I am building a robust Fuge and I am hoping that if I have more of the good fuge byproducts going into the pump return that even if the pump does kill some of the good it will not kill all , am I reasoning this correctly?
by robust I mean larger capacity fuge than normal for 90gal and meeting or exceeding other Fuge deploy recommendations
thanks

Joe 8) 8)

 

[mr_X]

hey neighbor!
i have a large sump/fuge for my application. i don't know if that plays a part in the amount of pods in my display or not, but i run the return through a mag drive and i don't see any issues. no carcasses being blown from the return, and again- no lack of pods in the display.
i have a mandarin that i was concerned about for a bit, but apparently he needs weight-watchers more than pods 8O

 

[trido]

MJ,
I have my fuge in the basement, I have a 125 gal, it is on a stand that is 24" high, and the tank has All Glass Megaflows, I have the fuge/sump on a stand so that there is about 8ft of head between the return pump and the top of the Megaflow, I use a Mag drive 18 with no problems and good flow. I estimate I have about 1000 gph flow.
Bob

Not to rain on your parade, but.... I tend to doubt that you have 1000GPH of return flow with mag 18. Not that Im saying your return flow is inadequate, but you would be suprised at how much head loss you actually have if you run a head loss calculator. Check out this link. http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.ph ... ntrances=1 If you have a sump one stroy below the display and the tank is five feet from the floor to the return outlets then you have two reurn outlets and one "T" for a total of four 90s you have near 13" of vertical climb and 4" of horizontal. If you are using one inch pipe you are actuall gettin near 500GPH. Depressing isnt it. I also run a mag 18 and try to imagine that all of the head loss calculators I have run in the past are incorrect. :lol:

On another note

I will place the fuge close to the ceiling

I personally wouldnt do this because ease of maintanance is very key to making the hobby enjoyable. Trust me, you will have to maintain the fuge to an extent and it would be easier to just use a bigger pump. You dont really need that much flow for your fuge or sump from the display anyway.

 

[trido]

MJ,
I have my fuge in the basement, I have a 125 gal, it is on a stand that is 24" high, and the tank has All Glass Megaflows, I have the fuge/sump on a stand so that there is about 8ft of head between the return pump and the top of the Megaflow, I use a Mag drive 18 with no problems and good flow. I estimate I have about 1000 gph flow.
Bob

Not to rain on your parade, but.... I tend to doubt that you have 1000GPH of return flow with mag 18. Not that Im saying your return flow is inadequate, but you would be suprised at how much head loss you actually have if you run a head loss calculator. Check out this link. http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.ph ... ntrances=1 If you have a sump one stroy below the display and the tank is five feet from the floor to the return outlets then you have two reurn outlets and one "T" for a total of four 90s you have near 13" of vertical climb and 4" of horizontal. If you are using one inch pipe you are actuall gettin near 500GPH. Depressing isnt it. I also run a mag 18 and try to imagine that all of the head loss calculators I have run in the past are incorrect. :lol:

On another note

I will place the fuge close to the ceiling

I personally wouldnt do this because ease of maintanance is very key to making the hobby enjoyable. Trust me, you will have to maintain the fuge to an extent and it would be easier to just use a bigger pump. You dont really need that much flow for your fuge or sump from the display anyway.

 

[MajorJoey]

thanks for the advise , I will keep as high and as easy accessable as possible. and will get a strong pump.