Refugium Help!

saltyfishy

saltyfishy

Member
What kind of pump do you have to buy? ( to pump water from the main tank to my 10 gallon.)
Do you put a protien skimmer in it and everything?And other things like heaters, chillers?
 
brycewood

brycewood

Member
It depend on how you set it up.
But you don't use a pump to get water down from maintank, you use a overflow/siphon.
You use a pump to return it. I think in the refugium you don't want to exceed about 10 turns an hour for the rufgium volume.
It's all about preference. I am going to build a sump that has the skimmer in a different chamber than my pump. A refugium normally doesn't contain the skimmer though. It's normally a generally trangquil place for plant and small animal life to grow.
B
 
brycewood

brycewood

Member
If you want slightly easier. I'd use a submersible pump in the aguarium with tubing up to hard piping in the main tank.
The mag brand is good. Estimate the hieght between your pump and the top of your display tank and make sure your pump flows at least 100 gallons at that distance.
I think a mag 3 might do the trink.
Then you'll also need an overflow box(assuming your tank isn't pre-drilled. I like the look of the cpr brand, no u tube.
You'll need suft tubing down from this as well.
Thats the basics.
I'd put two heaters in the sump each rated at about 60-70% of total system capacity.
I'd then put 4-6 inches of live sand, aabout 10 lbs of live rock and a baseball clump of culpera.
That's what I would do with your set-up.
Oh and I'd leave some room in your sump for the small amount of drainage that would happen if your pump shut off. There is a formula to figure out how much room to leave.
I'd also run a light on the refugium on the opposite schedule of my main tank lights.
I'd also get some kinda of semi closed cover to reduce evaporation.
That's more or less what I would run with you setup.
B
 
saltyfishy

saltyfishy

Member
Well From the floor to the top of my 55 gal. is 44 inch. so how would i get 100 gallons with a 55 gallon tank? And i have a extra 10 gallon I put in the stand to see if it fits.
 
brycewood

brycewood

Member
You'll want more flow that than in your main tank.
But refugiums generally don't break about 10 times thier volume in flow.
At least that's my understanding, but someone can correct me, I thought the macroalgae didn't want too much flow.
If your building more of a sump than you could run more flow.
so 10 times 10 gallons= about 100 gph.
But you'll want about another 1000 gph in the main tank only.
 
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