lol, i was doing a response lasty night, but after like the 5th paragraph (it was a long one) my computer crashed, and as it was like 3 in the morning, i didnt havbe the stamina to do it again.
SO, first things first. Most people design their
sumps to include a
refugium. They are very beneficial in restoring pods and other small crustaceans, and other things as well. Now, there are two general designs to
sump/fuges that i have seen. So i will outline them for you (and any other readers) now. Thes are all three compartment designs, it is just the arrangement that differs.
First, i will outline the most common way that these
sump/fuges are set-up (this is how i set mine up). The water flows out of the tank and into your first chamber. In this chamber is your
skimmer, and any heaters or other mechanical filtration devices you need. This chamber is first as many people believe that the water is dirtiest when it first exits the tank. If you can, many people would reccomend plumbing your output water from the tank directly into the
skimmer via a recirculation mod (a couple TR members have done this.
The water will then flow over a partition and into a
refugium. The
fuge (as it is commonly called) is one of the most beneficial sections (imho). It will replenish all of the little mini crustaceans and pods and stuff that have been eaten by your tank critters. This way, if you hagve something like a mandarin dragonet, it will deplete the number of pods in the tank, but then new pods will continue to flow in from the
refugium. Now, the
refugium can house a couple of different things (listen to the
refugium podcast), but there is no defining thing that makes a
fuge a
fuge.
Many people either do a
DSB, house some sort of
macro algae (chaeto seems to be most common), or little bits of
live rock. If you have the room, i would reccomend doing all of these things (as i did with my
fuge). Basically, the Algaes help with the consumtion of some of the
nitrates or
nitrites (can never remember which) while also acting as a safe haven for pods and even brine shrimp to breed and thrive.
What some people do as well is create a dedicated
Fuge tank, display it, and house seahorse and or pipefish in there. This is a perfect place for a seahorse (providing the dimensions are correct. Dont want dave jumpin all over me cuz i said anything is fine for a seahorse
). In the way that there is nothign to bother theseahorse, outcompete them for food, etc... Of course, having a seahorse in your
fuge will somewhat defeat the purpose of the
fuge, eating all the pods itself before they can get bakc into the tank.
Enough about the
fuge (went overboard, My bad) and onto the next section.
This is the boring section (sorry to all those people who sit in the back room and stare at their pumps XD). This is the final section where your pump to return water back to the tank is held. I also house all of my probes and such in there. and
btw, this is the section that will drop in water height whent he water evaporates FYI (just in case an auto top off is in your future).
So, that is the general way to do a
sump/fuge.
BTW if you do any dosing, many people say keep it in the
sump section, personally, i dose anything into the pump section, so as not to disturb your
fuge. However, if it will throw off the tank params top a greater degree, i'd rather have a swing in my
fuge by dosing in the
skimmer section, then having a swing in my
DT and having stuff die.
Okay, onto configuration two. I won't go inot a great explanation here, as i have already done that once
Going from right to left (it doesnt have to be this specific) the first chamber on the right will be your
skimmer section. It will then flow to the centre chamber, that will be your return section, thats right, the return. On the left side is where you put your
fuge.
How does this work you ask? You are to split the water coming from your
DT into two pipes. One pipe will go to your
skimmer section, while the other goes to the
fuge. Many people have a higher flow on the
skimmer pipe as many
fuges do better with low water speeds. The water then flows over from both sides into your return pump area, and back to the tank.
I dont think there is a huge difference between the two configs i outlined here. But there are some pros to each that the other doesnt have.
Config Number one (S/F/R) pros
-Generally easier to plumb
cons
-Any dosing done in the
skimmer chamber can throw off the
fuge Config Number Two pros
-Any dosing done in the
skimmer section or the return section will not affect the
fuge.
-Water speeds can be regualted diffeerently between the
skimmer and
fuge section.
cons
-Require a bit more plumbing wise :s
Again, i myself dont think theres much of a difference, if you want to see the configurations i speak of, you can view my thread (link in my sig) for config #1, or another TR members for Config #2. if you cant find a TR member with that, ask and ill look, i know someone here has it.
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
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