Refugium Water Flow

I am just setting up a new tank. It is a 90gal with a 75gal sump. I have a 18x-18x-18x size refugium partitionion off in my sump with overflow back in to the sump.

I'm still in the planning stanges and doing lots of reading. I have a 33W light used for plants above it. I might need to add more light later, we'll see. I am still trying to decide if I should run my over flow from my tank directly in to my refugium or pump it back once it hits my skimmer. I've read articals that want you to do it both ways. I think the water from the tank to the refugium will be great for the caulpera but might cause issues with my nitrates. Thoughts?

My regugium then over flows to my middle section in the sump when I am going to have my calcium ractor. From there I have a trap that will eliminate the air bubbles from the water before it gets skimmed and goes back to the tank.

 

Sounds like you will have plenty of light for the refugium as long as you just keep plants and critters in it. There are so many configurations for tank, sump, refugium it is hard to say whether any are actually any better than others.

I'm also just getting started and my sump/refugium is lined up like this...overflow from display tank into what I will call the sump section where I have the skimmer....sump section over three bubble baffles into a small refugium... and then the flow goes over a single wall into the return section back to the display tank. This sump is only a 20gal aquarium so I had to use space judiciously.

Glad to have you aboard Martin!!! [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Drew

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Look in my photo gallery and you will see my home made refug out of a 10 gallon tank, Talk about using space judiciously. any way my main tank drains into the overflow and down into the first chamber which houses my skimmer, it is only 3.5 inches wide, the same as my skimmer. the next section has my skimmer's pump and is just before the refug section. after that is a the generous return section that has my return pump and float switch modeled after DX7's idea/input in the i made this section, for my top off system, also in the i made this section.
good luck :-*