Sump/Fuge on 220? Confused

[Mcvivor]

Hey everyone. I have a 220 gallon reef tank. I have had it up and running for about 6 months now. I am a little confused on if I need an aquiptment upgrade. I am running a skimmer on the tank, that works great. But this is where I am confused and need some help. I have a sump system that came with the tank when I purchased it. It is predrilled in the back and comes down into the sump. The sump seems kinda small (after reading some post and seeing people have such huge sumps) I am not sure how big mine is but it is acrylic and seems to be about maybe the size of a 20-30 gallon fish tank. Should I upgrade to something larger? If so please help explain to what I should do. Also what about adding a fuge? Is that something I NEED and if so how would I add that on and what size should I maintain. I am not familiar with a fuge at all and how little knowledge on the pros cons and what it is even used for.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rhodes19]

For your size tank I would say a sump/fuge would be a nice addition. It will give you more water volume (smaller fluxuations), a place to hide all the equipment, and a place to grow macro algae and pods. Macro algae for nutrient removal and pods for the fish to munch on.

Generally, the rule of thumb when it comes to the size of your sump/fuge is go as big as you can/afford. Because I want my sump to fit under my 180, I can't go much bigger than a 55g tank. If I could have a fish room behind my tank, I probably would have gone with a Rubbermaid 100g stock tank. Fuges aren't necessary but they are nice to have. I've read some where, they recommend the size of the fuge be about 10% the size of the main tank. Not always do able. Flow through the sump can be between 5-30 times the main tank volume. If you run a fuge in the sump then usually about 5 times the volume for flow. There are a wide array of how folks run thier sump/fuges. Go into the diy forum and you will find a bunch of post with different ideas. All good reads. HTH.