refugium plans feedback please

Tabasco1 · Feb 26, 2011

Would greatly appreciate feedback on the refugium/fuge plan that I have posted. A couple of things to note. I will be using a 20g tank under a 45 g cube. I have an Aqua-C 120 skimmer and unfortunately it is pretty long, hence the long sectioning as opposed to dividing crossways.

Any problems that stick out?

Reef Breeders · Feb 27, 2011

Very unusual design, try having the line coming from the tank empty in a section about 5" in and taking up the whole side, and put a strip about 3" in and 4" tall from that in the refugium to keep the sand from moving too much.

Tabasco1 · Feb 28, 2011

OK, thank you for the input. I had the drain from the main tank into a smaller square area as opposed to just dividing across the back because i have 3 media compartments from a canister filter that I was going to have the water flow over/through from the main tank before it got skimmed. I didn't want to give it too much room to flow around without going through the media.

Are you saying that the divider strips would just be there to prevent sand from moving? Similar to baffle boxes on a comforter to prevent down feathers from shifting?

Do you think that is a big deal?

Reef Breeders · Feb 28, 2011

Sorry for the crappy drawing, I made that on my phone. You want it setup like that for the best water flow, and that is the common layout, especially for a more narrow tank.

Reef Breeders · Feb 28, 2011

Tabasco1 · Feb 28, 2011

Thanks nem, I would love to set it up like that but my skimmer and pump that drives it are longer than the tank is wide so I have to sit them longways. That is my biggest limiting factor.

WrasseSandwich · Feb 28, 2011

my only advice is to not let the tank drain straight into the fuge, you really want the skimmer to clean up the water a little bit before

also a 20g tank is a little small, how big to you want the fuge to be, it might not even be big enough to be beneficial

Tabasco1 · Mar 1, 2011

The display is 45g and I only have room for a 20g tank below.

Why would you not want the tank to feed the fuge directly? Seems like it would benefit from getting unprocessed tank water with bits of good stuff from above?

Reef Breeders · Mar 1, 2011

The current would be too strong, and th algae would hit the return.

Reef Breeders · Mar 2, 2011

You could do what I did, put the sump behind the tank.

Tabasco1 · Mar 2, 2011

That is an ouside of the box idea. I will think on it. I will also try to get another version of my plan up. I was thinking that I would have a t in the drain and control how much water was flowing through the refugium that way with most of the flow going to the sump/skimmer area.

Your sump/fuge looks pretty nice. Is that a custom acrylic job?

Thanks for the help.

Reef Breeders · Mar 2, 2011

No actually, it is an aquarium ecosystems sump that I traded some video games for. Pretty nice guy, he gave me an aqua c pro and overflows with it, as well as the return pump. The behind the tank idea shouldnt be long term, it is a real pain in the @&#, if you know what I mean, very hard to reach, but you dont really need much access once it is set up with ato, I automate wc's too, I just w8 for the topoff to empy, then put 5 gallons in there, then drain five from my display slowely, I only have a 65 gph pump.