My Future Refugium

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for some expert opinions!!!! and help. The draw is obviously not to scale.....but i put measurements on it...if that helps. It is a 20 gal

i need as much help as possible. i read a lot but just want to make sure its ok before i build it.

thanks in advance!

Bunner

ps...not sure if i can put this in the DIY if i didnt build it yet!

 

Are you skimming before the fuge? That may not be a good idea, don't know much about sumps but I do know that you want the water going into the fuge as dirty as possible so that the plants inside can absorb as much phosphates/nitrates (plant food) as possible.

 

you do want your water going in dirty skimming after is better because you are getting what is left over from the plants what type are you going to use cheato is a pretty good plant you can plumb your skimmer into the output of the fuge i would do a sump with a separate fuge the extra water volume won't hurt either thats if you have the space what is the dt water volume?

 

Ya i was going to skim before but if it doesn’t work that way i will have to redesign. I have seen a lot of designs where the skimmer comes before though.


I was planning on using chaeto. Dt is 90 gal. I'm not sure that there will be room to add another sump for just the fuge....but maybe.

 

Take a look here...http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/90-gallon-build-thread-48930.html. Sparky made his out of a 20 for a 90 display. The advice I would give you is to do what he did and have a separate feed for the fuge side from the display. That way you can regulate the flow in the fuge to be slower.

 

If you only want a fuge, as opposed to a fuge/sump combo, my advice would be this: immediately to the right of your fuge chamber, where the set of baffles containing the filter sponge is (as indicated with an arrow); don't have the top edge of those baffles at the very top of the tank. This way, if your floss or sponge ever gets clogged, the water simply bypasses over the baffles, into the return chamber without leaking over the tank.



Otherwise your design is fine. I've never been a huge fan of filter floss/sponge material for this reason. If you're interested, have a look at the first fuge I made. This was constructed from a 10 gallon aquarium and worked very well in the days of my 55 gallon tank.

If you'd like to see the build thread, look here.

 

ok great...i'm not to worried about the sponge clogging, as i was planning to replace or clean it regularly but you have a good point!

Thanks for your input.

Anyone else have any advice? the more the merrier!

Bunner