Another refugium question.

[spyderreef]

I have a 125 and am setting up a 120 reef. I have a 29 bow set up that has fish in it for my 120 when it is ready. I have been reading about refugiums and I read it was best to use the water coming directly from the skimmer. True?
I currently have an Oceanic 6 that sits in my sump for my 125. My sump is divided into two parts. Water from my tank coming in from my 125 on one side and the skimmer on the other with a poly filter between the two. Right now I have a maxi jet on the skimmer side going up to my 29 bow. I have an overflow box that sends the water back to the sump. Is this good enough for a refugium? Is there a better way to plumb it or am I set to go.

 

[jonthefb]

DVS, you are right, running a skimmer in line with a fuge is kinda a double edged sword. if it is plumbed beore the fuge chamber you are gonna pull out a lot of the proteins, nutrients, etc that your fuge is going to use as fuel, however if you plumb the skimmer after the fuge you can pull out a lot of the little critters such as pods, larvae, etc, that would feed the tank, reproduce, etc. Some people say that it doesnt make a difference if the skimmer pulls some of these guys out cause they will hit the return pump anyways and get chopped up, but the truth is that most are so small that the return pump impeller is too small to mess with them. THe skimmer does worry me though. I would really try to consider maybe teeing off the overflow line and placing a ball valve in each so that one half could go to a skimmer, and the other half go to the fuge, that way you are using the best of both worlds, and have maximized your filtration options!
good luck
jon

 

[spyderreef]

I don't know the proper way to do this but this is the text that I got my information from about plumbing the refugium.
"Time to make a point! The water entering the refugium should come from below the main tank's water surface not from the overflow, if so equipped. Why? Surface water is skimmed from the main tank into the overflow. This surface water is laden with oils and other dissolved organics. Why would you want to dump this into your refugium? Better to place a small powerhead inside and just below the water surface of the display tank to provide oxygenated H²O!Better yet is to tap off the return line from your protein skimmer! Highly stripped and highly oxygenated water from the skimmer provides as near ideal water as we can expect."

 

[jonthefb]

i disagree. i doth think water coming from the skimmer is ideal for feeding a refugium at all. On my 135 reef, whcih has been up for 2 years now, we have the water from dual reef ready overlfows coming directly into our fuge, and have had no problems whatsoever with it. you want all that murkey stuff cause thats what the algae uses and exports in its use!
good luck
jon

 

[spyderreef]

One more question then.
Is it better to use the water from the middle of the tank as they suggested? Will it make a big difference if you used only returned water which is technically just skimmed off of the top? My tank only take off surface water. (That was two questions.)
My tank is in a separate room from my sump and 29 bow and it would be difficult to connected a pump that would feed the refugium directly from my tank.
Thanks Jon, this is helpful.

 

[jonthefb]

not a problem bud. As i said earlier, ive been using water pulled from the top of hte tank and fed through my fuge for two years now and have never had an issue with water quality. as far as the satement about oxygenation goes...how much more oxygenated can water be when its spilling over a box in direct contact with air, churning and bubbling? Trust me, pull it from the top. you ll be fine. All that muck and grime and Dissolved organics are what you want to be removed by the refugium anyways so definately take it from the top!
p.s. is this the 135 we discussed moving earlier? if so how did everythign go, how is everyhting looking?
good luck
jon

 

[bang guy]

I strongly disagree with the author.
Do whatever is easiest and the least complicated. Least complicated = fewer floods.

 

[spyderreef]

Yes, It is a 120. I am going to post some pics soon. The move went smooth. I lost a brittle star right away and I was not able to keep the red tree sponges alive. Otherwise things look great. He did not have a lot of corals. 3 anemones a couple leather corals and another type of finger leather and of course something I can not identify. About 50-75lb live rock, which I think I will keep most of it in my 125. The fish all made it. (Large Vlemegii (sp?) Tang, Flame Angel, 4 Percula Clowns, PJ Cardinal, Damsel, Flame Hawk, Coral Hawk, Coral Banded Shrimp, Spiney Urchin and one unindentified fish. It has taken me forever but I built the tank (All Glass with 2 built in over flow boxes) into the wall on a base that I built myself. (My Dad helped) It sits at bar height and I hope to have a couple of nice chairs to sit in front of it to admire (It has a five inch ledge in front of it to put a nice cold one.) I replaced the lighting system with 2 400wtt 20,000k MH radium and 2 110 wtt blue actinic. I'm using his Little Giant pump, a T5 (noisy) and his protein skimmer (Berlin Hang-on) that will work for now. He had a 75gal rubbermaid tub as a sump which was too large for me. I replaced it with a 30 gal aquarium, which fits under the 120. He also had an RO unit that came with a great 60gal storage container. I just put in live sand and about 200lbs. cured live rock a week ago. Now I am waiting.
Thanks for asking. It would be difficult to do what I am doing without your advice.