what to put in the sump

[rkhlk]

hello everyone,
I have recently built and added a sump for my 55 gal tank. I've purchased an overflow box and good protein skimmer. My question is I have set up a 5 gal portion of it for a refrigium and not sure what type of plant to put in it? Also when I get it up and running is the protein skimmer and refrigium gonna be enough filtration? I thought i read somewhere that I will have to add a carbon bag somewhere in the filtration.
thanks to all.

 

[pettyhoe]

enough filtration is based upon a lot of things. How often are you doing water changes, how much fish are you stocking, how much are you feeding, how much LR do you have? There are a lot of things that go into the right amount of filtration. I run carbon on all of my tanks occasionally, as well as phosgaurd. what is your skimmer rated at? I used to run a refugiem on my 75 reef, but I took it off because the water was almost too clean, if that makes any sense. As for stocking your refugium, you could just throw some live sand, a few live rocks, and some cheato, and a small light will suffice to keep it running. Thats about what I had on my 10 gallon refugium.

 

[rkhlk]

well about six months ago i took everything out of my 55 gal and put it into a 35 gal. So as of right now i have about 50 lbs of live rock, 80 lbs of live sand. and only two fish. the skimmer i have is rated for 75 gal. I know i will need more sand and rock when it goes back into the 55 gal. but I'm not sure of the plant that will do the most benefit for my refuge. the reason i broke everything down was I had a cheesy stand and really wanted a sump. So I figured I would break it down and start over. My plans are to add all new water to the 55 and sump and cycle it. then after it cycles I will remove about 30 gals of water and transfer the water, livestock and sand, rock, from the 35 back into the 55 gal and would have the extra 30 gal of water on hand if needed.