Refugium Flow Rate

[djcmeeks]

As stated in previous posts I'm looking to ditch my wetdry system and go with a refugium. I know in a sump you usually want your flow rate around 10x per hour of your display tank capacity. I'm looking online for sump/refugium tanks and all the ones I find have all the water flow of the sump going through the refugium. Don't you want a slower flow in your refugium? I thought the ideal system is to have a seperate chamber for a refugium so you can isolate the water flow? like shown on melevsreef.com? If this is correct, can anyone please direct me to a place online that I can purchase a good quality one?

[prow]

humm, ok let see, first off there is no one best way for a home system. what works best in a certain system will vary depending on room, type of equipment, money, cleanning routine, time, the macro you use, ect...

so with that said how much room do you have? is the sump going under the tank or over the tank, in a fish room or garage or in the stand under the tank?

either way i would go with a DIY sump. its just not worth the money to buy a prefabricated one, IMO. my sump is just a 45gal long tank that i added baffling to. i attached the design for ya.

my sump is under the stand. the flow through the sump and refugium is deleivered via 1200gph pump that then goes through my chiller. it ends up being about 600gph after you fig all the restrictions. thats only about 4x turnover rate for my system. IMO its more important to supply the skimmer with raw tank water than the macro. so my first chamber has my skimmer(also where my Ca+ reactor drips into) the second is the refugium. in the refugium i put a 200gph powerhead because my cheato likes it. the 10x turnover rate, i think, is more for cultivating aerobic bacteria in the sump. like with your bio balls, but now your trying to grow macros so it changes your goals and how to reach those goals.

the slower rate is for more contact time of dissolved nutrients with your skimmer and macros. too fast a flow rate does not allow enough time for your skimmer and macro to pull things out of the water colum vary efficiently.

[prow]

oo also my first chamber is so big because of my skimmer. using a asm g3. you could make that first chamber smaller depending on the skimmer you use.

[djcmeeks]

Thank you very much for the advice. I am getting a 70g oceanic and plan on putting the sump underneath inside the stand. So I guess I can get a 10gal or larger tank and make it to my liking. So what do you use for baffles? Plexi and silicon? I have no clue about the skimmer, there are so many out there. Not wanting to spend a whole lot of $ since I'm having to buy a new tank and stand but maybe I should go for the gusto and get an AquaC 1200