Poll! Underneath refugium, worth it?

[Mbones]

OK guys, I need everyone to give me there opinion here. I just got a 90 gallon tank that I am going to make a Reef Tank, with a 40 gallon tank underneath. Now I know refugiums are god to have above to use gravity to empty into the display tank, but I do not have the ablitly to do this.

SO, is it worth have a refugium underneath the tank, or should I just focus on making it a sump and not divided the 40 into a sump/refugium? I need all the opinions I can get on this one!!!

[Imaexpat2]

Personally, I think you cant go wrong with a refugium in any case. Granted it would be optimal to have it above the tank and gravity feed back into the display to provide a constant supply of "food" to your tank. But refugiums can serve more than that purpose only. Growing macro-algae to export excess nutients from the water in your system is another benefit as well. Providing additional water capacity to your system making it easier to sabilize the water quality is another added benefit. I am sure that these arent just the only three benefits...just ones that quickly come to mind.

My refugium (140 gallon poly-tank from Rubbermaide) sits slightly lower than my 135 gallon display. It has a ton of critters in it, macro algae, mangroves, live rock covered in coralline algae. My water quality has never been better/more stable. My SPS corals have never been healthier or showed as rapid growth as they are now showing. Its a great way to add make up water and additives to my tank as well. In fact I am so sold on refugiums I have a 300 gallon poly tank that I am currently setting up that I will eventually hook up to a 240 gallon plus tank in the next 9-12 months! So prehaps thats overkill, but thats where I stand on this subject....

[Jimbo]

140 gallon refugium that's awesome. Some pods will reach the main tank especially the juvinals-some are free swimming. You can always shake out some pods from the macro algea into the display tank, fish will love you

I have a 10 gallon refugium and all I can say that my sps's are doing great also. My refugium acts as a settling tank too, Plus everything is BB.

[Casey]

refugiums are awesome I love mine and they are almost as fun to watch as the tank with all the cool critters in there I highly recommend them on any system they rock! I say go for it.

[Boxster]

i decided to add one to my sump, although not as large as yours (72G display 20L sump-skimmer/return/fuge) my decision was based on reading countless threads on this forum, although it is not that large (my fuge that is ) it is better than none at all

[Mbones]

Ok, so this is kinda what I was aspecting to hear! Now I want a refugium that debris can settle like Jimbo. So to do this I would guess that the refugium needs to have a low flow rate through it? I am not totally sure on what the characteristics of a refugium are. Do they all have a DSB, LR, MACRO, and low flow? This is what I have gotten out of reading several other threads on this web-site as well as a little on Reefcentral(I like this site better by the way, you guys are a lot more personal. Thanks by the way!). If you could give me a little help on this that would be great!

[motorslave]

Cool thread, I am using a 29 for a sump and want to add som macro also. Everything is BB. I have seen some macro that grew and spread in a substrate. What will work in a BB situation?

Robert

[Boxster]

i learned from the friendly folks here, that a low flow is needed a fuge, so i divided my 20L sump in thirds first in line is my overflow with a euroreef skimmer, then baffles lead to the center where the mag12 return pump lies, off the pump is a ball valve leading to a T off the T is another ball valve which leads to the fuge. the second ball valve will allow me to control the flow to my fuge. so both left and right chambers feed the center where the return pump is. im waiting for the silcon to cure right now, im planning a water test this weekend hope it works OK :thumbup

[Mbones]

Man Boxster, I was thinking the Same type of setup on my 40L tank. So sorry to say I guess I am going "steal your design"! lol. Just trying to determine what to put in the refugium.

[Boxster]

from what ive learned, sand bottom with a few LR fragments seems to be right, also plan on adding a light

[dwall174]

I couldn’t decide either so I’m going with both!

Once my system is fully set up I will have two refugiums. One for nitrate export (lower) & the other one above the tank for pods.

[Jimbo]

If your going to use your refugium as a settling tank you don't want any sand in there, that way you can syphon it out weekly/biweekly. Here's a pic of the flow in my refugium.

[Mbones]

Wow, Now I am really confused about this. I thought that the refugium always had sand!! Anyone else have a pic of their's that I can see. I have always seen refugium with a lot of sand and Macro and rock.

[Casey]

[DaveJ]

Depends on the purpose of the fuge if it has sand or not. I think most of our sumps are better served for debris catchers since the water goes there first. A fuge that is seperately pumped from the sump with a low flow, say 250gph is probably ideal for most situations. I have one, I don't know the gallonage but its 24x24x24 that I feed from the sump via a powerhead. I have a spray bar in there to break things up and will add a layer of sand along with LR and veggies.

As for the benefits of a gravity feed above vs one attached to the sump.. This is my own opinion so take it for whats it worth... most of the critters you want in the tank will survive the pump etc, enough to repopulate and feed the tank. Some might end up chum, but enough will survive.