Refugium

G

Gouramiman

Large Fish
#1
Jan 15, 2004
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#1
i am planning on setting up a 10 gallon refugium on my 40 gallon that is soon to be a reef tank. i noticed that all the refugiums have their skimmers running before the refugium chamber of the sump. does this affect the performance of he filter at all? i was planning on running my skimmer in the return chamber of my refugium, but after seeing alot of them with the skimmers before the refugium im starting to think that this is not good. if i do need my skimmer before the refugium how should i hook this up? i am only useing two chambers in my sump to maximise the refugium area.

any suggestions would help
 

S.Reef

S.Reef

Superstar Fish
#2
Dec 1, 2003
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#2
In a matter of fact it does. Really for a refugium to work you want the skimmer after the filter...so it doesnt rmove organics in the water that small organisms may need to consume.

Your set-up sounds fine.
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#5
Oct 22, 2002
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I disagree. Skim it first to remove as much stuff as is possible, then pass that semi cleaned water to refugium to finish off. There is no sense skimming the out product of a refugium. Either you're running the refugium to use caulerpa or another macroalgae to remove organics, in which case semi cleaning it first makes sense to reduce load on the algae OR you're running a refugium to grow microorgs to feed the main tank, in which case you'll find skimming them on the way to the display will remove most of them.
Either way, it makes absolutely no sense to skim the outflow from a refugium
 

S.Reef

S.Reef

Superstar Fish
#6
Dec 1, 2003
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#6
Well...actually you should have the skimmer running totally seperate from the refugium along with a UV or activated carbon. Ideally, you want well mixed tank water before it enteres the refugium.
 

G

Gouramiman

Large Fish
#7
Jan 15, 2004
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ok well i went to a local fish store today and got some info. teh guy there said that it really doesnt matter but he likes them before to keep the bubbles from getting back into the tank. that would bug the crap out of me. So i decided to add another chamber before the refugium even tho i dont want to. i also ordered my 400 watt metal halide and protein skimmer today. this weekend i will be taking down the fresh water and glueing in my overflow. i will also be making my refugium and ordering my retern pump. btw how many gph would you guys suggest. i was thinking a rio 6hd pump w/ 360 gph.

tell me what you guys think
 

S.Reef

S.Reef

Superstar Fish
#8
Dec 1, 2003
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#8
depends how much your draining...you also have to consider head and such so...I would get a bigger pump. Then you can always ball valve it if its too much.
 

G

Gouramiman

Large Fish
#11
Jan 15, 2004
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ive been trying to get a diagram up that i drew but it keeps saying that it is to big. what can i do?? i already tryed to skew it to make it smaller but even after i put it down to 25% it still said it was too big
 

G

Gouramiman

Large Fish
#14
Jan 15, 2004
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I have another question is there any specific flow rate that the water can go through the refugium? because i read somewhere that if its going too fast it will not give the algea enough contact time witht he water to do its job
 

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W

wayne

Elite Fish
#15
Oct 22, 2002
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#15
Depends on what you want to grow in your refugium. I wondered about that too, but for most algae it doesn't seem you can pump it fast enough unless you're dislodging the substrate. But remember not all refugia are for growing algae.

An easy refugium is really easy to set up. I used an old 5 gallon acrylic and drilled two holes in it, and fitted 1 inch pipes. These go back to the aquarium. Mine has a thin sand layer, then a bunch of live rock frags, then macroalgae on top, but is underlit as I only have a little 13 watt pc on it. Water is pumped from the tank, into the fuge, then gravity feed back out and down. The fuge is next to and above the display. Mine is mostly or pod growth and diversity, but I would like to better the lighting for algae growth. I'm turning over about 10 times an hour I woulf guess.
 

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