sump/fuge questions

[pallan]

Does a sump/fuge totally take the place of a canister filter. i understand how a canister filter cleans water, through media and filterfloss how does a sump/refugium do it.
once a sump/refugium is set up how long should one keep the old canister filter going before removing it (dont want to take mine off and disturb bacteria colonies until they are established in sump/fuge.
would keeping the canister filter going with ehimech and efisubstrate continue to cause nitrate problems now that sump/fuge in place could you keep both going and balance each other out or will the sump/fuge really be able to clean the water
75 gallon tank
17 gallon sump/fuge new today
coralife 125 skimmer new today
ehiem pro canister filter been running a year
back pack skimmer been running a year

 

[pallan]

alos for lighting. do you leave fuge light on 24 hours, or oppisite of display lighting. whats better?

 

[happyvac]

I think it's suggested that you run the Fuge when the tank light is off.

 

[engineer]

I am trying to design a sump would a 20L be ok for a 120, wanted to do a refugium in it also? Any suggestions?

 

[lazarus]

20L would not hold 20g since you need to leave space for possible backflow in case of power failure. 20g is also not 20% of 120 (which would be at least 24g) and 20-30% ratio of sump to tank has been recommended by many on this site. Even so, i bet it would work for FOWLR and soft corals, from what i have heard from others on this site.