Sump/Refugium

[Urabggr]

Oh, sorry about not answering you Doug on what I'm gonna have in my tank. I was too concentrated on the S/R issue. Anyway, I plan to have a good variety of soft and LPS corals... maybe eventually one or two acropora's. In the softie section, I'm interested in mushrooms and few different kinds of leathers (toadstool, devil's hand, encrusting, etc.). As for LPS, I mostly like brains- both open and closed. I will probably get a frogspawn as well. Once I have proper lighting, I may get an acropora or two, and maybe even a clam! Currently, I have an open brain, a maze brain, a few mushrooms, and a RBTA. I'm not gonna get much more until I upgrade to the 75. As for fish... just the usually (clowns, dwarf angle, goby, etc.) On a side note.. when I upgrade to the 75, will there be any problems with adding so much freshly-mixed water? I'll only have about 25-30 gallons (excluding the sump... that will be moved to the 75) of "established" water, and will be adding about 40 gallons probably.

[tims]

i fully agree with doug..
know what you want to have in the tank, read up on the corals and fish and inverts you would like to keep before getting a lot of things.

[Doug1]

Virtually all of the corals on your list are OK in a lower flow more lagoonal type environment, the major exception being the acropora, it will prefer higher energy(both light and water flow)
Some people do OK with them high up in the tank, close to the lights and the return water stream, but again they will do better if you have a reef tank set up for them .
Try to restrain from stuffing a lot more fish in the 75, more fish = more poop=more nitrate/phosphate issues to deal with. Enjoy

[Urabggr]

If I add a few powerheads in the display tank to increase the current in certain area's of the tank (like the top, for example, where there will also be the most light, and therefore the best place for sps), would the corals do better? Also, I haven't really gotten a straight answer yet... Will my idea with the S/R (but mostly refug... heh heh) with help of extra filtration from power/canister filters work? Or will the flow through it be too slow and not be efficient enough because the refugium needs a slow flow? Again, I'm not worried about the current in the display tank because that can be easily adjusted. All I really wanna know about right now is the S/R. Thanks for all of your time so far guys!

[Doug1]

OK let me take another stab at this, your max flow rate thru the sumpfugium will be limited by the capacity of the overflow to drain water to the sump. Obviously you don't want a pump that will push more water back to the main tank than the overflow will handle as flooding will result
With a hangon overflow box you want to keep flow rates fast enough that captured air bubbles will sweep thru rather than sticking in the U tube and further reducing flow.
Having said that a thru rate of around 400 gph should work fine with a hangon overflow and a Mag 5 or 7 or similar. Remember you will lose flow rate pumping uphill
The other factor to consider is velocity thru the sump. Velocity will increase as the sump size decreases with a given flow rate. In example if your return and drain are producing 400 gph the water will move thru a 10 gallon sump faster than it will in a 30g sump. Think in terms of a river, the deep spots move slowly and the shallow rapids move faster to move the same amount of water thru a smaller area.
If you are going to have an algae fuge area for export of nasties, I think a slow rate giving good dwell times is a good thing. The filter sock is not a bad idea, but I think trying to add hangon filters or canister filters to the sump is making more work for you in the long run.
I would save the canister for cleaning sessions . You could use carbon in a power filter but you can put it in an old nylon and let water flow over it in the sump with the same effect. Besides in a sump you wont want the water level up to the top like a display tank so that will make running a HOB filter harder. Most Canister filters sit below tank level to work well so using one on a sump may be a challenge. HTH

[flameangel]

Well, I just did a change over from a sump to a refugium in my 90 gallon. I spent the money and purchased exactly what you see on the Drs. Foster and Smith site...the AquaFuge Pro system with the skimmer incorporated in it. I purchased from the LFS, as I didn't have to pay the shipping on it from Drs. Foster.

I too was battling with DIY and thinking of saving the money and turning my current sump into a refugium, but space was too limited in the sump area, as the bio balls took up a lot of room as well as my skimmer and two pumps in the sump area. There was just no room to work with in there!

Cost for the total Aqua Fuge Pro system including the Coralife 6500 light, start up algae, 10 nassirius(?) snails, 1 jug of Mineral Mud and 40lb bag of CaribAlive Sand was $550. Not cheap, but considering I sold my old sump and skimmer for $200, it was basically $350 out of my pocket and definately worth it in my eyes, as I didn't have to do much work.

The reason for the splurge was due to high nitrate levels (80 ppm +) and I was at wits end with that and red slime issues. After about a week and 1/2 after the change over, nitrates were down to 12 ppm and currently I am at ZERO! The LFS is now using me as the Refugium Poster Child in their store!

Also, I put a few smaller very porous rock in the fuge for the "pods". Every 3 weeks I will take one of the rocks out of the fuge and place in the main tank for feeding purposes. Then pull the rock out of the display and place back in the fuge. Keep rotating this rocks and you can have a never ending source of food.

As for the flow rate, yes you want a slow flow in the fuge. This can be accomplished by making sure the flow rate on the pump is adjusted to where you want it or placing a filter media pad over the grate area to slow the flow through the fuge area. This works for me.

I am very happy with the AquaFuge Pro and it was a very simple change over. No sandstorms and it took approximately 45 minutes as I was able to use my current plumbing in the new system.

Benefits of a fuge IMO:

1. Easy care/Easy clean
2. Another tank to peer into and look for new things
3. Nitrate control
4. Good quarantine area for newbies to the tank
5. Good place to put bad crabs until you can get them to the LFS for credit
6. Great for all the "pods"
7. Benefit of Macro Algae without it invading your main tank
8. Easy placement for PhosBan if needed or carbon (has a little spot for all that stuff)
9. Natural biological filtration (it's the oceans way of filtering, just on a smaller scale)

The cons to this (the only one I could come up with):

1. The cost

I would totally recommend the system. After my husband got over the initial shock of the cost, he really likes it. It definately has changed my entire tank for the better.

I hope this helps a little for you.