# plumbing question



## hfd250 (Nov 8, 2010)

I am going to be making an in tank refugium, filled to almost the top of the aquarium (so I can have a small hang on filter, and have it return to the tank water following a river/waterfall system. the aquatic areas water line will be maybe 7 inches deep. so in order to prevent the refugium from back flowing and flooding the tank, I assume I will have to use a one way valve. does anyone know how much water flow will be required to keep a one way valve open? will the suction from a 15 gph hang on filter suffice? or will i need to supplement with a small powerhead? I want to keep the flow rate as low as possible.


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## jasonak (Oct 26, 2010)

Hi
I have sumps/refugiums on all my tanks and normally we use a U tube.
Im not sure excatley what you mean but this is a link to sump/refugium design and how they work hopefully it will help.

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html


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## hfd250 (Nov 8, 2010)

thats a very good link, however does not really address what I was trying to figure out. I will upload a sketch of what I am going to be doing later on


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## jasonak (Oct 26, 2010)

Sorry,ill chek back and see if I can figure it out by your scetch.


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## hfd250 (Nov 8, 2010)

extremely crude drawing of what I have in mind, the red tube connecting the aquatic area to the powerhead in the refugium will approx. 7 inches long. from there the powerhead will be connected to a one way valve. the refugium will be filled to the waterline in the image which will be alot higher than the water line of the aquatic area. so basically my concern is what is the smallest gph powerhead I can use to keep the one way valve open, the tricky part is going to be matching the gph of the powerhead with a small hang on filters gph so the refugium does not overflow. (i would like to keep the gph at 15gph and really not much more than that.) this way I will be getting a water flow rate of about 1 tanks worth of water per hour. if anyone can help me with this I will be very greatful


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

Great idea. The one way valve is called a check valve. This website states that it has a .5 psi cracking pressure. I would look for the lowest cracking pressure I could find.

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/pvccheck.html

In addition I think that the external filter is complicating things. I would stuff the area above the yellow line with aquaclear filter foam and call it a day with filtration. That filter structure would be more surface area than most of my tanks have.


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## fishingkid1 (Apr 4, 2010)

I agree with Brilliant on the filter thing. The only filter small enough is basically a foam filter, but you can basically do that with just the filter floss above the line. It would give a much higher surface area than just a small HOB. But if you must have a HOB look on foster and smith aquatics, they sell a very small nano HOB filter.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

A refugium in the tank can be done this way:
Separate the refugium with a high piece of glass. It runs the full length of the tank, perhaps 2-3" from the back. 
Drill one or more holes so water from the tank can get into it. You might need a screen over the holes to keep fish out. Make it easy to access for cleaning. 
In the refugium the water passes through whatever filter media you want, then over a shallow baffle. Any debris that does not get caught by the filter media will stay on the bottom until it is vacuumed out. The pump returns water to the tank via a water fall, you can use a spraybar that has more holes or even one long thin slit to make the water flow more evenly across the waterfall rock. 

Here is the idea:


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## hfd250 (Nov 8, 2010)

Thanks for all the feedback! I was thinking the HOB filter was overkill anyway. I am also concidering a smaller partition within the refugium to allow excess water in the soil area to seep through several holes (with a foundation of gravel in front of the holes to keep soil from clogging the holes) and then from there have the drainage water go through some of the filter floss to screen out excess dirt and use that water for a spray bar over my land planted area (this way the i am watering my plants with water already containing the minerals from the soil (plus what ever fertilizers i need to suppliment with) 

I will begin this project in about two weeks, and I will post a full journal of its construction as well as the outcome on if it is a good set up for others to try


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