Sump - Model K

Water enters on the left side, where a skimmer will sit. The water level in this sump is 10" high. To reduce microbubble issues, teeth were installed in the baffle between the skimmer section and the refugium (center section). The teeth should help keep the macro algae and snails in the central zone, and are 4.5" off the base of the sump.

Water continues to flow over the next set of teeth and through an area 1.5" wide that will be filled with bioballs later. It then comes up from under the last baffle into the return area. There is a 1" gap at the bottom of the final baffle.

The bracket in the rear wall of the refugium is designed to hold two Hydor heaters side by side. Each heater must be submerged 9 3/4", so the bracket is located so the heaters do not touch the base or wall of the sump.

The top flange is 1" wide. The heater bracket is designed so that the heaters can easily be inserted without interference by the top flange.

The object with circles on the top of the sump is a cooling fan bracket. Two computer fans will fit over the sump, blowing down on the water to keep the reef from getting too hot. This bracket can slide left to right along the top of the sump.

Dual float switch brackets are securely mounted on the rear wall. One will top off water as needed, while the second one acts as an emergency cut off. If too much water enters the sump, the auto top off system is disabled to avoid flooding the room.

The float switch brackets are mounted so that the return pump remains fully submerged and can't suck in any air (which tends to create microbubbles). The higher bracket is mounted low enough so that there is still enough room in the sump to hold any water draining from the tank, if the return pump fails for some reason.

This is a picture from the back of the sump. You can see the difference in height between the float switches.

If the sump has 10" of water all the way across, there should still be room for 8.5g of water to fit if necessary.