A better view of the sump / refugium setup. Notice the custom acrylic clamps I made to hold the two together...they just slip on and off. I have the refugium connected to the main sump through a 2 foot length of 1 1/2" spa-flex pvc (it bends) and it makes the refugium want to scoot forward in the stand...the clamps stop this. You can make out the Mag5 pump for the skimmer in the sump, and the green lines going from the pump to the skimmer, and from the skimmer to the drainage collection container.
Here is the little collection container from the skimmer with a handy charcoal filter on top - to reduce the smell. You also see the refugium side of the spa-flex PVC. It conviently obscures the other end connecting into the sump. These are glued in like regular PVC connections. You also see a short length of the spa-flex going to the Iwaki. I used 1 1/2" spaflex going through a bushing reducer into the 1" Iwaki intake. This is to ensure the pump intake stays flooded. It also has a union at the junction with the pump to allow repairs or maintenence to the pump.
Finally a shot of the Iwaki return pump. I wanted to show how this was mounted. Notice the unions at the intake and output of the pump. I can completely disconnect and remove the pump with these two unions. I also put a 1/2" piece of neoprene beneath the pump, and mounted the pump with 4 screws with washers also placed through another piece of neoprene on the top. I hope this will isolate the vibrations of the pump. With the neoprene gaskets and the spaflex tubing, the pump should be "free floating" and not cause vibrations and extra noise. I can't test this yet because the SCWDs have to be plumbed in. More on this tomorrow...I will hopefully begin testing the system at that time. Thanks for reading! SWN
9/11/03 New pages: