Sump Refugium

[Mishikal]

Can a Refugium within a sump be to big? I am planning on building a sump to go under my 55 gallon that is 30" long by 14" tall and 13" deep. The Refugium is looking at being 18" long by 14" tall and 13" deep which is pretty big for the size of the sump. I plan on putting some live sand or mudd and some algae and brittle stars, bristleworms and live rock.

Another question to. Is it wrong to have a hang on remora protein skimmer in your sump? I am attaching plans to where it's going to be.

Any thoughts or sugestions would be great.


Thanks,

 

[Scooterman]

Are you planning to have low flow over the Refugium/sump area? I don't see anything wrong IMO!

 

[Mishikal]

I'm not sure if it's going to be low flow or not? I was just going to wait and see. But I think from the design it will probably be low flow.

 

[john]

with that mag 3 pump it will be low flow

 

[Ritsuko Nashida]

From my own personal experiences with refugiums, no matter the size...they are always a good thing! I am also of the "Go bigger or stay home" crowd too so I favor the biggest refugium you can cram into a system. But a HUGE refugium is not neccessarlily needed. To maximize its effectiveness, lower water flow than you would normally have going through a sump will give Macro (which I highly encourage) and live rocks/sand bed time to better process the water going back to the display. For Macros if you use any I would suggest Chaeto instead of Caulerpa type macros. I personally use a lot of Chaeto and Mangroves in mine.

If you can maintian the water level at a high enough level to properly run a HOB skimmer it will work out just fine I think, but they are water level sensitive and this is one reason you wont see many HOB's on sumps. If the water level is too low they may still function but performance may be pretty dismal.