refugium or not?

[igadget56]

I have a 125 gallons in wall tank and a 40 gallon sump. Petco is having their dollar per gallon sale. Looking for advice. I'm going to keep the sump as is. If I build a refugium it would be separate from the sump. Ok, now I am running a phosban reactor and a bio pellet reactor. I'm not sure which way to go, refugium, reactors or both. Give me some advantages and disadvantages, or what you would do. Phosphates and nitrates always read 0.

[jim.crunk]

Refugiums are great for growing live food for the DT. Also, you can put cheap dry rock in it to seed and use later for fragging and use it as a time out area for fish or grow out/repair time for corals.
I run the same type of reactors and have 0 phos & nitrates. The current contents of my fuge area is only rock.

[sporto0]

Do you currently have issues with nuisance algae in your Display Tank? Refugiums are nice to have, especially if you can observe it, macro algaes & pods thrive in a low flow, well lit area free from predation, but if your phosphates & nitrates are low & you have no problems in the display tanks related to high nutrient levels, it's not a necessity. I suppose all things equal, a refugium is nicer to look at than a reactor.

[igadget56]

So you're not growing any macroalgae, is that why you are still running the reactors? If I go with live rock and a DSB would I still need the reactors. I have an idea of something I haven't seen before. The sump is on the floor, I would put the refugium on a stand and
pump water in to it from the sump exactly like I am doing with the DT. I could then drill it or put on a HOB0 overflow. It would be like another DT but with much less flow and no power heads. Do you think I would need any baffles? I already have T5 HO lighting that I'm not using. Any and all help would be appreciated.

[jim.crunk]

I'm not growing any macro. From what I understand if your running the biopellets they will compete and win when it comes to nutrients for the macro's. For me i'll stay with the reactors just for simplicity, but I will admit that there are some cool things happening in a full functioning fuge and you can feed some of the macro's to algae eating fish(tangs angels ect). It's also the perfect environment for different reef bugs that if plumbed right will automatically help feed the DT. (I would love to have a dragonet/manderan).

Someday I will setup a seahorse tank and will be running a nice refugium.

[sporto0]

You could do both, if you don't have a nuisance algae, you don't need to employ both, a Refugium would not require any baffles, it's just a place that shares the same water & is free from predation from the display tank. Macro algaes & all types of pods can grow & thrive & migrate to the display, I don't know what else you are asking?

[igadget56]

I do not have nuisance algae. This is what I want to do. The sump is on the floor, the DT and refugium will be the same height off of the floor. Instead of the display tank draining back into the sump could I have it drained into the refugium and then overflow back to the sump? That way I wouldn't need another pump. I could split the return coming from the DT with one going to the sump and the other going to the refugium with a ball valve so I can control flow through the refugium. I hope I explained this a little better.

[lilmonster]

yes, that would work.

i have a 10gln that overflows into the fuge then into the sump.

[rAzOr714]

Will work fine





*rAzOr*

[sporto0]

+1 That works just fine, just fine.