sump/refugium question

[moneylaw]

Hi,
I am new to the hobby and appreciate all the helps I have received from the forum so far. I have a couple more questions before I start the tank. I am thinking about starting a 55 gallon tank. It will be FOWLR at the begining and later may add some soft corals, but prob WON'T make it a full reef tank due to the cost. I am wondering in that case, will I need a sump/refugium? Or can I get away with canister filters, power head and HOB skimmer without sump/refugium? I know sump/refugium is the best, but would like to save some money if it is not necessary. Are there any of you who have 55 gallons tank with a sump/refugium? Thanks.

 

[trigger11]

A sump/refugium is not necessary for FOWLR. For the most part you would use a sump to hide your heaters and have a place to put a protein skimmer. If you go with the HOB skimmer you would be fine. A refugium makes a nice addition but again it isnt considered necessary. It is a good place where copepods can grow which you would need a lot of if you were going to have a mandarin fish. Additional benefits of the fug is that the macro algae you grow in there will help keep the nitrates down which corals are more sensitive about.

 

[moneylaw]

Thank you trigger11. I do plan to keep coral later after I get more experience. so i guess refugium is a must?
Also I am trying to find a tank that can be both sump and refugium, but I cannot find one. As far as I understand, if I want sump/refugium in one piece, I have to have four compartments, one for the bio/balls (overflow from the display tank), one for skimmer, one for refugium, and one for return pump. Is that right? I have looked through every where, but I can only find at most 3 compartments tank, like the picture I attached. please help me understand. If you can attached some pictures of other people's sump/refugium together, that would be really great. Thanks.
Ken

 

[gillyweed]

The Refugium and the "wet/Dry" bio-balls perform similar functions, so both are not needed really. if you are looking to include a refugium in your sump you will need one compartment for the fuge and one for the pump. If you choose to include your skimmer in the sump (a smart move as it cleans up your Display tank for a nicer view) then you would need a third compartment. That one you include above should work fine for you

 

[trigger11]

Yes, I would agree the picture you have with the three compartments would work just fine when you get ready for that later on the down the road. One compartment for the protien skimmer, one for the fuge, and one for the return pump. A fuge is not necessary for keeping corals. However, I have had one for a few months now and I can say that having one has cut down on a lot of the maintencance I have had to do for the coral. For example, we know that corals do not handle as high of a nitrate concentration as fish do. So having the fuge cuts down on the amount of nitrates in the entire system. So basically I do not have to test for nitrates as often. Although with the fuge you do have to do a little maintenance every once in a while and make sure to take out the dead algaes because that will spike the nitrates.

 

[moneylaw]

Thank you, GillyWeed and trigger11.