The diagram to the right shows the flow through the sump. Water enters the back left chamber from the overflow in the display. Water flows over an overflow into where the MC500 Deltec Skimmer is situated. Then water flows under a baffle and over a lower baffle to establish a lower water level through part of the sump. The lower water level allows a few inches of free-board so that water siphoning back into the sump when the return pump is off won't overflow. A 150 watt heater is located in this area as well as the return pump. There is also room to place a bag or two of carbon if necessary.

From the return pump, water is either returned to the display tank or it is diverted through the refugium or fuge. The purpose of a refugium is to provide a place for amipods and cocopods to reproduce which in tern provide nature food for the fish and corals. Besides rubble rock, macro algae is grown in the refugium. Macro algae is beneficial because it helps up-take undesirable nutriensts like phosphorus and nitrates. Unfortunately, the tank has not been too successful growing macro algea. I have been able to grow culuerpa, but it was removed in favor of cheatomorpha which has not grown well in this setup. Culuerpa has a risk to go "sexual" and get out of control in the display tank. I have tried three different types of lights and changed the flow and still not experienced much cheato growth. I am currently using a incandecent power compact type light with a built in reflector on with a clamp on style holder. According to many sources this setup works well for growing chaeto. However after five months, I still haven't seen much algae growth.

The refugium overflows back into the "common area" of the sump where it is pumped by the return pump to repeat the cycle again.

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