New Setup. DSB/Fuge Questions (long)

[Nabber86]

After reading everything that on can find on reef tanks for several months, I am about ready to set up my system. I kinda went nuts on E-Bay and ended up with a stash of really nice equipment. Here is what I have collected so far:

75-g reef ready tank
40-g sump tank
40-g extra tank (dont know what for yet, but it only cost me $15)
Corallife Lunar CF light unit (2x65 watt Actinic, 2x65 watt 10,000K lamps)
100 gpd RO/DI water purifier
Poseidon Vortex Protein Skimmer
Fluval 304 canister filter (for quarantine tank)
Plastic Tanks for filtered fresh water and synthetic seawater storage (20-gallon and 40-gallon closed head w/ 1-inch drain valves (gotta love U.S. Plastics!)
Hella-accessories (xtra air pumps, xtra powerheads, several test kits, hydrometers, misc. plumbing supplies, etc.)

I plan on a reef tank with lots of LR (100# ?), moderate stocking with easy fish, and slowly adding anemones, soft corals, clams, and other exotic livestock as my system allows and my skill progresses. (I know. I will probably be adding extra lighting to the display tank soon).

The nice thing that I have is room (lots of it). It turns out that the selected location for the display tank is directly above a really big work bench in my unfinished basement. I plan on placing the 40-gal sump in the basement (w/protein skimmer) and using a Little Giant 4MDSC pump to drive the system. There is even a hole in the living room floor to run the plumbing to the basement (once I remove that pesky air vent that is located there now).
Anyway, I am just about to start connecting plumbing and was wondering about my sump set-up. I have been reading a lot about DSBs lately and have come to the conclusion that I don’t want one in my main tank. However, I will have plenty of room in the sump to create a refugium with a DSB. Or I could even use my extra 40-g tank as a really big separate refugium with a really big DSB if I wanted. I plan on lighting, raising Caulerpa (sp?), and adding some critters to the refugium. The questions that I have are as follows:

What exactly am I trying to accomplish with the refugium? Do I really need one?

Is there any benefit in adding a DSB to the refugium?

What would be the ultimate refugium set-up if space was not a factor?

FWIW - I have plenty of scrap acrylic pieces and glue.

TIA.

[rtgordon]

There are many advantages to a sump. The additional water volume to buffer for bad things. Like you mentioned, you can put a DSB down there for additional buffering and supporting life, you can move all of the unsightly equipment to the sump (filters,skimmer, heater, etc), and you can put your additives in the sump where they will be slowly dispersed to other parts of the tank without putting them over your fish and inverts. The refuge can be used to put denitrifying macroalgae in, grow organisms to feed your tank, etc.

Others will have more reasons and goals I am sure. These are the reasons that I want to do it.

I want to build a sump/refuge for my tank, too.

gordon