refugium help

[saltshaker]

I am new to this board. I have been browsing it for a couple of hours now and really like what I see here. I have a 90 gal tank with about 120# of LR about 1.5 inches live sand, 4x110 vho's, and a 20 gal sump with a berlin skimmer in the sump. I want to turn my sump into a refugium but i want to know how deep of a snad bed do I need, how much and what type of lighting should I use, and what is a good gph for water flow?

 

[jedimaster]

I have recently been looking at the refugium/sump setup. This is what I have learned.
about a 4" live sand bed with a some live rock should do nicely, Lighting isn't as important as if you had corals but still important enough. I plan to put a Power Compact over mine.
The best setup apparently is not to have the refugium a poart of the tank but have the refugium above or beside the main tank. That way the bio life isnt diced by the impellor of a pump. It has water pumped in and the water flows out.
The best water to go in is apperently the water output from a skimmer. As it tends to be the highest quality. Anyway having said all of that I will be using a sump refugium setup.

 

[johnnysalt]

Check my diagram below to see what I did with my sump. Because of space limitations I made a separate chamber in my sump for the refugium....it has it's own water flow that I can adjust the gph for. I also did not want it above or beside the tank.....the tank is in the living room and a refugium (algea tank) would not look good out in the open!

 

[saltshaker]

Thanks for the input, what you have told me so far is very helpful and gives me some great ideas and direction. My sump already has a partition that I had put in when I installed the sump. It was put in to address water flow issues from one end of the sump to the other, but it will work perfectly to separate the fug area from the rest of the sump. I have had one person tell me a 4" sand bed will work best, and I do plan on having live rock and some rubble in it as well. My only remaining questions are how much light will I need? will a single incandecent grow light do the job? I see some people run their fug lights 24/7, while others run them on an opposite schedule from the main tank lights, is there any benefit of doing on over the other? Also, how slow should the water flow in the fug be? Oh yeah one more thing. I see some say to use outflow water from the skimmer to feed the fug which I dont understand. I thought you would want to supply the fug with nutrient ladened water not the cleaner water from the skimmer. I know the water coming out of the skimmer still has nutrients in it after being stripped alot of organics, but would it hurt the fug to run water direct from the overflow to it? To manage water flow I am thinking of placing a T in the line from the overflow to the sump and have one line with a valve going to the fug and the other line going to the skimmer portion of the sump. Will this work or would it really be better to feed the fug with skimmer outflow, which I can easily do with a little recofiguration?

 

[diatom]

saltshaker~
The benefit of running your lights opposite it to help fight the fluxation in PH that happens between the day and night in your tank. Also some people feel it helps keep your Macro algae from going sexual.
Many people run their lights 24/7 to get extra growth out of there Macro.
If I were you, what I'd do is start with running the lights opposite and see how it works, if your not happy after a couple of months then switch to 24/7. Just realize that you may have to discard your Macro if you decide to switch back. I've read that cutting back on the lightling like that will cause it to go sexual which is not a desirable thing.
You're right about the inflow of the water...it's much better to use water directly from the tank rather then the "clean" water from the skimmer.
Flow wise, slower is better but it's not critical. just play with it a bit you'll find the flow that seems right to you.

 

[mr . salty]

Flow rate IS critical!!!The flow through the fuge MUST be as slow as possible(less than 100gph)or it will not work.The water MUST be in the fuge long enough for the denitrafying to be accomplished...This is why it is usually better/easier to setup a seperate tank as your fuge,rather than using a chamber in the sump.I also agree that water directly from the tank is better than using the skimmer return...

 

[saltshaker]

Ok all here is what i did. partitioned off a bout 2/3 of my sump to use for the refugium. the refugium over flows back into the remaining 1/3 of my sump where my skimmer and return pump are. I put a t in my overflow line with one line going to the skimmer/return portion of my sump the other line off the t has a valve on it a supplies my fuge. I put a DSB in the fuge, seeded it with LS from the main tank and put some LR in it from the main tank that had calupera (sp?, god I hate to spell, LOL, so dont give me grief, LOL). The calup is thick and meaty, looking much like xmas cactus for any plant folks out there. Not sure what kind this is but is it good in a fuge. I plan on getting other types from my lfs. The set up is more simple and functional than I had inticipated. If I had to do it again, to me this seems much more simple than a separate fuge, as long as your sump is of ample size. I will let you know how things work out over time. I hope I get results from my fuge like other have seem.

 

[daluminum]

you know.. I can see this is an old post... but Ill bring it back to life with my comment/suggestion..
I have some macro in my sump and Im really not happy with it at all.. I had an out break of "pea soup" and once I got rid of it I did not want it to return.. so I read up and found macro algae would help prevent it.. So I got some free cuttings from LFS and put a light under my tank and waited.. and about 3 day's later I had a huge die off of corraline in the main tank.. which really really sucks.. because I was about 75% covered in purple. now Im about 30%.. so I tried to add some calcium for the macro and coralline to grow.. nope.. didnt work.. the macro doesnt grow very fast and the corraline has not yet come back.. Plus to make it worse.. (as if you didnt know) my PH level is now way to low.. so my opinion is very mixed on macro algae.. SO I pulled it from my tank and Im going to go with a phosphate sponge.. I realize algae is more of a natural mean.. but the only time Ive seen any algae problems is when I use ANY tap water.. which I obviously dont do anymore.. So I would like to stake my claim that I am not a supporter of macro algae.. thank you and good night..