Quote:
Originally Posted by extendedmango
Nah I'll just stick with the ghost skimmer, even though it has mixed reviews. I can't imagine there is a better option than a skimmer made for the exact tank I will have.
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As the owner of a biocube, I assure you there are almost always better options than the skimmer made for the exact tank you have. The Biocube skimmer is
terrible.
The Aquamaxx WS-1 I have is just over 3" wide, so it won't fit in the back of your tank, but I assure you it would perform dramatically better than the ghost skimmer. But the Ghost is definitely not a crappy skimmer, and you'll be happy with it.
As for the refugium part, I would keep it pretty simple. I would only grow algae back there, and would recommend either buying a Santa Monica HOG 1 or DIYing something similar yourself. If you're on a budget (as you're a student), you could do what I did, which was just buy a cheap 10w LED floodlamp from ebay ($12), put it behind the tank, and shine the light into that refugium section. Algae will grow on the back wall (or you could put some eggcrate or something in there for it to grow on that is easier to remove and clean), then when it's all grown in, you just scrape it off and siphon out the algae with water changes.