sump upgrade

Next week I plan to upgrade my old sump. I have two questions for you guys. First what tou think, should I use filter sock or not. I used sock in my old 90gal. because that was set up when I bought it. Should I still keep it in my new sump? And second. Part of new sump will be refugium. But I heard that flow in refugium should be slower then for the main sump. I have around 600.g/h. Is that true or I will be o.k with yhe same flow. Please help me and answer on thouse two questions. Thanks. Artur.

 

Water flow through the fuge should be nice and slow (maybe 200 gph). Cant tell you exactly what mine is but id say its about 1/4th of the overall flow intake. So 3/4th going to sump, 1/4th to fuge. I control the flow with a ball valve on each intake pipe (1 to fuge, 1 to sump).

 

I am a fan of slow movement through a refugium, I stick with the concept of 10% of your DT per hour, or 9 gph in your case.

With a refugium you are attempting to mimic the oceans natural swamp, such as the florida everglades – blasting water through at 200+ gph is not the best ides in my opinion. However, that being said many people are successful with fast moving refugims. These people utilize chaeto which will thrive by being tossed around in this type of environment.

I personally dislike socks, I find them to get dirty too quickly and become a detriment to your system as they begin to grow nitrates. If you have a maintenance schedule that works for you and you are on top of the sock thing – than go for it. Socks are a great way to polish your system. I have a reef so I like some particulate floating about, keeps my reef happy –as a diver I have never dove a pristine reef, they all have particulate floating about. So for my taste I stay away from socks.

 

Slow flow in the fuge if you want to grow pods.

 

I would go with a little more flow too thats what my research has lead me to. Im upgrading fuge to something bigger and im going with slower flow in fuge