refugium question

jfourn · 07-09-2008, 08:08 PM

i have a 29gallon reef and planning to upgrade to a 90 or 125. was wondering the the differance from having a refugium and a sump. i know you can have them both but what are the pros and cons of each? i would really like to place my heater and skimmer down there but i wasnt sure if i could in a refugium...........

Tonz of fun · 07-09-2008, 08:27 PM

A sump is defined as extra water in my opinion. Its where you can have your heater, skimmer, and such. The way I rigged my tank is I have my refugium first then some filters and some baffles. Then i have my reactors, ato, skimmer and return pump in "sump" area. If you build yours I recommend you put the skimmer in first then refugium then sump that way your skimmer is not sucking up good things...

jnohs · 07-09-2008, 09:21 PM

i would recomend trying to get the refiguem spilling into the display this way any zooplankton will just get into the tank and get chopped up by an impeller. that is what i have any way. i have a aquafuge hob with 13 pound of rock rubble in it then a tom of different macro alge. and the caulper grows fine in the rockrubblw with out sand.

BigAl07 · 07-09-2008, 09:22 PM

Tonz is correct. Refugium is for Macro-algae and such to grow. I have my refugium full of macro algae, some frag plugs and that's it. It's lit on the same schedule as my main tank. Sump is an "Equipment storage Tank" to take some of the ugly stuff out of your display tank and they both add water volume.

I like to have two different tanks for sump/refugium. The sump takes the FULL water volume where as I have much slower flow through my refugium. this seems to be a much better "Pod-haven".

fatman · 07-10-2008, 06:09 AM

The norm for people anymore who keep a reef tank with a small tank underneath is to use a tank that will just fit under the stand, or a little smaller if using an external return pump. I house a 40 gallon breeder under a 120 gallon tank, with a Reeflo Dart, a Snapper and a Panworld 50PX-X pump, and still have room for controller power strips, a light for the macro sump and and the controls for my ATO. I also keep my two skimmers pumps in the sump, as well as a temp probe, a pH probe, an ORP probe, an DO probe, the ATO floats, and a pump to feed a chiller. It also houses a tube seperator bundle that settles out detritus and particulates. Is it a sump or a refugium or what? It is another tank below my main display tank that is interconnected, that maintains the same water parameters as my display tank and that makes it very versitle.
It is pretty much the norm now to get as much out of the sump/refugium tanks as possible any more. Therfore the typical setup underneath holds, a skimmer, a sump/refugium and a return compartment. Typically the tank is split into three compartments with a skimmer compartment, a sump/refugium compartment and a return compartment. It is also typical to have the return compartment in the middle with bubble baffles between the skimmer compartment and the return compartment. Both the two side compartments feed the pump return compartment and the skimmer and refugium is fed by either seperatre overflows or by a single overflow with its drain split and controlled by ball valves with all excess water flowing straight to the return compartment. An ATO's switch levels indicators/floats are placed in the return compartment and the heaters are typivcally placed in the skimmer compartment. The skimmer compartment should be fed only slight bit more water than the skimmer capacity and the water from the skimmer should preferably flow into the bubble baffles not the skimmer compartment. Usually display tanks that have more water containers than the one tied in line are called tank systems. They can quite often have sumps larger than the display tanks, as well as seperate refugiums and a seperate sump housing a skimmer, possibly a deep sand filter tank, and often times frag tanks and grow out tanks.
I myself do not keep fish with my corals so do not need a refugium per say, but I do use my sump to grow algae on a reverse light cycle to lessen the swing in pH and dissolved oxygen between when the main display tanks lights are are on from when they are off.

07-09-2008, 08:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
jfourn Fire Coral Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 81 View Gallery Karma Komment	refugium question i have a 29gallon reef and planning to upgrade to a 90 or 125. was wondering the the differance from having a refugium and a sump. i know you can have them both but what are the pros and cons of each? i would really like to place my heater and skimmer down there but i wasnt sure if i could in a refugium...........

07-09-2008, 08:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tonz of fun Serpent Star Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Albuquerque Posts: 205 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: refugium question A sump is defined as extra water in my opinion. Its where you can have your heater, skimmer, and such. The way I rigged my tank is I have my refugium first then some filters and some baffles. Then i have my reactors, ato, skimmer and return pump in "sump" area. If you build yours I recommend you put the skimmer in first then refugium then sump that way your skimmer is not sucking up good things...

07-09-2008, 09:21 PM	#3 (permalink)
jnohs Neon dottyback Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: copiague long island Posts: 699 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: refugium question i would recomend trying to get the refiguem spilling into the display this way any zooplankton will just get into the tank and get chopped up by an impeller. that is what i have any way. i have a aquafuge hob with 13 pound of rock rubble in it then a tom of different macro alge. and the caulper grows fine in the rockrubblw with out sand. __________________ GO SLOW

07-09-2008, 09:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
BigAl07 Do I look as lost as I am Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Waynesville, North Carolina Posts: 21,549 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: refugium question Tonz is correct. Refugium is for Macro-algae and such to grow. I have my refugium full of macro algae, some frag plugs and that's it. It's lit on the same schedule as my main tank. Sump is an "Equipment storage Tank" to take some of the ugly stuff out of your display tank and they both add water volume. I like to have two different tanks for sump/refugium. The sump takes the FULL water volume where as I have much slower flow through my refugium. this seems to be a much better "Pod-haven". __________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Live Rock Rubble will do the SAME thing as Bio-Balls and is NOT a suitable replacement for BIO-BALLS in a Reef System! It's ALL gotta go!!* Nitrate (NO3) reduction is directly proportional to percentage of Water Change. Allen's home-made formula...currentNO3-((%WC.01)currentNO3)=finalNO3 (thanks Luukosian) This means if you change 50% of your total water volume (That's EVERYTHING) you'll get a net reduction of (NO3) somewhere around 50%. Ask me about how to increase your REEF budget without going without FOOD!!* Big Al's 10g Julie's (BigAl's Gal) 6g NanoCube Gone but not forgotten BigAl's Slow 90g Tank Chronicle Allens OFFICE 12g Nano-Reef

07-10-2008, 06:09 AM	#5 (permalink)
fatman Has been struck by the ban stick Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Alaska Posts: 552 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: refugium question The norm for people anymore who keep a reef tank with a small tank underneath is to use a tank that will just fit under the stand, or a little smaller if using an external return pump. I house a 40 gallon breeder under a 120 gallon tank, with a Reeflo Dart, a Snapper and a Panworld 50PX-X pump, and still have room for controller power strips, a light for the macro sump and and the controls for my ATO. I also keep my two skimmers pumps in the sump, as well as a temp probe, a pH probe, an ORP probe, an DO probe, the ATO floats, and a pump to feed a chiller. It also houses a tube seperator bundle that settles out detritus and particulates. Is it a sump or a refugium or what? It is another tank below my main display tank that is interconnected, that maintains the same water parameters as my display tank and that makes it very versitle. It is pretty much the norm now to get as much out of the sump/refugium tanks as possible any more. Therfore the typical setup underneath holds, a skimmer, a sump/refugium and a return compartment. Typically the tank is split into three compartments with a skimmer compartment, a sump/refugium compartment and a return compartment. It is also typical to have the return compartment in the middle with bubble baffles between the skimmer compartment and the return compartment. Both the two side compartments feed the pump return compartment and the skimmer and refugium is fed by either seperatre overflows or by a single overflow with its drain split and controlled by ball valves with all excess water flowing straight to the return compartment. An ATO's switch levels indicators/floats are placed in the return compartment and the heaters are typivcally placed in the skimmer compartment. The skimmer compartment should be fed only slight bit more water than the skimmer capacity and the water from the skimmer should preferably flow into the bubble baffles not the skimmer compartment. Usually display tanks that have more water containers than the one tied in line are called tank systems. They can quite often have sumps larger than the display tanks, as well as seperate refugiums and a seperate sump housing a skimmer, possibly a deep sand filter tank, and often times frag tanks and grow out tanks. I myself do not keep fish with my corals so do not need a refugium per say, but I do use my sump to grow algae on a reverse light cycle to lessen the swing in pH and dissolved oxygen between when the main display tanks lights are are on from when they are off.

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