Fuge Flow

Just curious as to what the optimum flow would be through a 'fuge with a DSB, cheato and some LR

 

6-10 times sump size seems to be what most recommend, but there are some on this board that think faster flow is more effective.

 

6-10 times entire sump or just the 'fuge? My sump has a mesh sock and skimmer in one side, 'fuge on the other with return section in middle. Refugium section will only be a couple of gallons at most.

 

You are only concerned about the fuge since you split it. A good place to start is 10x "actual" fuge volume per hour. Figure that out with actual level and everything else in there and go from there. Some like more, some like less.

 

The fuge section is recommended to have 1X the fuge section's volume. The sump is recommended to have flow at 6X to 10X the sump's volume.

 

I have actually never heard that. You remember Tangster always being on the low flow side... but I seem to remember him saying 10x actual fuge volume... my actual volume was 10g and I ran 100gph... then bumped that up to around ~150 gph after a while... that still isn't very much... you know others do much more. But doing 10gph would be a small trickle to regulate.... I can't remember, help me out... maybe he was a fan of 1x and I eventually went to 10x. Regardless... I would put the 1x at the low end of the spectrum.

And that is the "general" recommendation for the sump... but it really has no reason for it. There is no amount of flow that the sump "needs". Just what the equipment in the sump needs and a fuge if it is split. So if the skimmer can do 300gph, then there really is no reason to do more than that whether the sump was 10 gallons or 100 gallons.

 

Tangster was running less than 1X flow. I don't remember seeing any bump up in his thread.

I am not sure what I am running but my fuge has about 20 gallons in it and I am using 1/4" OD airline to feed it. It seems to work well and does not smell bad or anything.

 

Cool. Ya there are champions of both... I was more in the middle, the super low did not seem right for me... but there was no denying 20 years of Tangster setting up countless fuges that way all successful.

 

Each system is different and you need to tune your filtration to match your system.

 

Never heard this, either, but it makes perfect sense. Sometimes "fuge" and "sump" get confused. IMO, the chaeto, or macro section should be considered sump, and the DSB area considered fuge.