Refugium questions

[reefnut2012]

I know that this subject has been beat to death but, I cant seem to find a clear answer. I am getting ready to set up a system after being away from the hobby for about 15 yrs. It will be 300 gal DT draining into a 75 gal fuge with a DSB, LR and macroalgae(cheato) then into a sump to process the water . The recomondations I am seeing here are to skim the water before the refugium. It seems to me the system would be most efficient with the maximum nutrient load going directly into the refugium prior to protein skimming. Does anybody do it like this? Also for the DSB does a person want to use a plenum or not. When I left the hobby years ago plenums were becoming very popular, this seems to be not so much the case today

[sporto0]

I would agree with you that allowing the higher nutrient laden water to flow throught the refugium first would be best, part of the reason for the refugium is to allow the macro algaes to export the nitrates & phosphates from the water column, although in a closed continuous system such as a reef tank, I doubt it makes a discernible difference. As far as Plenums go, I have no experience with them good or bad, so I don't want offer any advice without having used one.

[sullyfish]

Welcome back. First of all the fuge will work best with lower flow than what your DT drains will be at. You want a certain amount of "contact time" in the fuge, that is why most larger systems like yours will have the return pump "t" off a percentage of the sump output into the fuge. Another reason for doing it this way is being able to skim/filter out detritus before going into the fuge w/ lower flow where it tends to accumulate.

[Donkeykong]

For the fuge to be effective, there should be a low flow so that everything has time to absorb the excess nutrients. If it is first that usually means that is where your overflow is dumping. I would think that proper flow thru the fuge would be more important than order related to skimmer.