Refugium Setup..??

[BarryR]

I have a 75 gallon drilled tank and this refugium below...http://www.aquacave.com/eshopps-refugium-r-200br125-225-gal-2nd-brgeneration-3173.html... I have not even added water or the live sand yet...but have a question regarding the setup...I have read ad-nauseum about different setups and they basically all say the flow through the refugium should be about 250 gal per hour...Well, I have only one pump a Deep Blue Triton 4 that is rated at 1050 GPH..(Although it is pretty junky and makes way too much noise just plugged in to test..Lots of clanking goin on!!) How does one do that with the "fuge" in the middle...??
I havnt gotten anything wet yet in the event I want to go back to playing with balls..hehehe

[jeff@zina.com]

You'll be fine. One solution is to swap the refugium and return pump compartments and tee off the return to feed the refugium. Might not be easy in your setup though.

Jeff

[TangAddict]

I have a similar flow thru design for my sump/fuge. I'm also in the planning stages of setting up my fuge, right now my return pump just flows approx 1500 gph through it with only some live rock. Many have told me to tee off the drain from the display so less volume runs thru it. I think i'm going to use a small pump to get like 75% of the flow around it after the skimmer section so I don't completely bipass any flow without skimming. Interested to see what others have done with flow thru fuges.

[TangAddict]

What are you going to use for substrate? DSB or mineral mud? Soooooo many opinions on this in the forums from rock only to miracle mud and mangroves.

[TangAddict]

Oh and don't forget the lighting debate, 24/7 or reverse daylight? So many opinions so little consensus.

[thegrun]

Another solution is to run a 3/4" pipe from the 1st chamber accross to the 3rd chamber preferably with a valve to control flow. I'm not sure where the 250 gallon an hour number comes from, the size of the refugium would dictate the flow rate. I tend to run more water through my refugiums than others and have never had a problem. I do think that 800 gallons (a rough guess at the pressure drop) would be a bit much for your refugium. What size is it exactly?

[BarryR]

Another solution is to run a 3/4" pipe from the 1st chamber accross to the 3rd chamber preferably with a valve to control flow. I'm not sure where the 250 gallon an hour number comes from, the size of the refugium would dictate the flow rate. I tend to run more water through my refugiums than others and have never had a problem. I do think that 800 gallons (a rough guess at the pressure drop) would be a bit much for your refugium. What size is it exactly?

The fuge is in the are of 29 gallons...

[BarryR]

What are you going to use for substrate? DSB or mineral mud? Soooooo many opinions on this in the forums from rock only to miracle mud and mangroves.

I have a ton of mangroves and bottom right next door.....:mixed: I am beginning to get cold feet with the whole refugium setup tho...As you can see in the pix adding plumbing and drilling the sump to bypass the flow is a bit much in that confined area...If it wont work as is, I'm reluctant to get it wet....but in retrospect, Im suspect of a small tidal wave down there to get a good exchange up top....

[coralreefdoc]

Looking at your sump/refugium setup it appears most of the flow will be on the top of the water surface through the sump, from baffle overflow to baffle overflow if you will. This should limit the flow within the mid to bottom region of your refugium if that is what you're cautious about. Essentially you will have the colorado river at the surface of the refugium and adequate flow beneath

[BarryR]

Looking at your sump/refugium setup it appears most of the flow will be on the top of the water surface through the sump, from baffle overflow to baffle overflow if you will. This should limit the flow within the mid to bottom region of your refugium if that is what you're cautious about. Essentially you will have the colorado river at the surface of the refugium and adequate flow beneath

Thanks, doc..Thats was my fear, that the whole fuge would be a ride at Wally World or something.....:spin2:

[coralreefdoc]

You should be good, wouldnt worry about it too much. You can always dial back flow by adding more head to your pump

[rodster912000]

this is how i sent of my fuge. just like jeff said, i t'ed off the return into the fuge hat way i control the flow. was very easy check out the pic!!!

<a href="http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff365/rodster912000/?action=view&amp;current=IMG00046-20110215-0026.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff365/rodster912000/th_IMG00046-20110215-0026.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>

[Reverend Reefer]

if you install a T, it basically doesn't matter too much how strong your pump is since you can dial it back to how you like.

the fuge part isn't a big deal, don't stress. here's how i think of it:

a) if u decide to just have a ball of cheato in your fuge
- you don't need 24/7 lighting for the fuge, i think the 24/7 lighting idea is to prevent sexual (or is it asexual? whatever) reproduction of some macroalgae like caulerpa but its less likely to happen with cheatomorpha
- most people with a ball of cheato only, no substrate, makes for a clean fuge
- they try to have the ball of cheato "roll" which means you'll want more flow to get it "rolling"

b) if you decide to have mangroves
- i dont think they'll do that much in terms of filtering but they are pretty
- then you might want to get mud but i still don't recommend it, others might say otherwise

c) if you decide to have a wild west refugium
- this is how mine is pretty much setup, i have a display fuge with live rock, a deep sand bed, and different types of macroalgae, and anything else that got "expelled" from my display tank (urchin, serpent starfish, cleaner shrimp)
- people might say this defeats the purpose of a "refugium" as it should be a refuge for pods and such but i seem to have millions of pods in there
- my flow is broken up by all the macro and live rock
- its on a reverse photo-period to balance out my ph

each decision has its benefits and costs. if u decide 24/7 lighting vs. reverse photoperiod, you won't get the ph balanced benefit. if you decide to have caulerpa, you risk the scarry white spores if they go sexual. if you decide to have just a ball of cheato rolling cheato, its easier to clean and maintain but you don't get the added filtration benefit of a remote deep sand bed and extra live rock filtration. and so on and so forth.