Mechanical filter as a refugium?

[jake22]

Could i turn and aquaclear filter or any other type of mechanical filter into a refugium if I take out all the media and add live rock and live sand? Do i need to put a special light for the caulpera (sp)
or will they get light from my reef lights that are over my current reef tank?

 

[jumpfrog]

Might work, just would be a very small fuge. I would be concerned about the amount of water flowing through the filter as well. Normally a fuge has a fairly slow water flow to allow maximum nutrient absorbtion and not disturb the DSB too much.
Interesting concept though. If you try it let us know how it works.

 

[jake22]

Has anyone actually done this before? After reading jumpfrogs post i am allitle concerned that the sand my spill into my tank and really screw things up.

 

[iechy]

I keep saying I'm going to do that with my bak pak skimmer but have never done it yet. It's worth a shot. Even if it spills sand out of it it'll settle down eventually to the bottom.It willl need light to be sucessful. If you can figure a way to restrict the flow on it that may help as well. I'm not oo familiar with that particular filter but it may be possible. Do some research on the hang on type refugiums and try and set it up as much like them as possible and let us know how it goes. HTH. GL.

 

[mr . salty]

I can think of two good reasons why it will not work as a proper 'fuge.
#1,the flow rate will be way to fast.A good refugium has a flow rate of below 75GPH.
#2,the filter is way too small to do any significant denitrafication.A good guidline to sizing a refugium is at least 10% the tanks size..That is if you have a 100 gallon tank,the fefugium should be at least 10 gallons.But bigger is allwasy better...