Converting sump into refugium?

[AJDunnell]

I am looking for suggestions on possibly converting our sump into a refugium. The current setup has bioballs in 2 sections of the 3 baffle sump tank and allows the water to flow under (not over) each baffle. As shown in the pictures, our 90 gallon drilled, corner flow tank drains into the left hand portion of the sump tank. A flat filter mat is the first thing the return water hits, then bioballs and then over to the protein skimmer and then to the submersible pump back into the tank.

The sump is marked "Pro Clear Aquatic Systems, Jacksonville, FL"

My main concern in converting to a refugium is the way the sump tank is partitioned, because it has spaces on the bottom of each baffle for the water to flow under from partition to partition. Would this work for a refugium?

If it does, I was thinking about gradually removing the bioballs over a period of time and replacing with live rock and chaetomorpha algae, if this sounds like the tank would work?

And if so, I am assuming that I would need a light for the refugium to grow properly? If so, what would you recommend?

Also the main tank has live rock and live sand as pictured. Tank has been running about 2-1/2 months.

And in time we are considering introducing a mandarin dragonet and (hopefully) having the refugium be the source of copepods for the mandarin.

Our current family consists of 2 clownfish, yellow tang, blue tang, dottyback, gramma basslet, cardinal, coral angel beauty, watchman goby, court jester goby, peppermint shrimp, emerald crab and various hermit crabs and snails.

Anyone have experience with pros/cons to what I am thinking about doing? And maybe a suggested timeline to have a well established food source in preparation for the mandarin?

Thank you in advance,
Andy

 

[Stevenliu9]

depends on your stamina... If I were you, this is what I'd do: drain the tank, take that out-dated sump system out and replace with a new one to include a refugium. I used to do maintenance on a guy's tank with old system like that. He wanted to convert it to a "modern" system with refugium. The guy had a 300 gallon tank so it was not as easy of a project as a 90G like yours. So I did what I could with that's in there but it just never got right with the old set up. Honestly, if I were you I'd invest in a sump/refugium to update the whole set up.

 

[JerseyGuy]

I am NO expert but I did convert my sump into a refugium about three years ago and it was the worst thing I ever did to my tank. A few months ago I ditched it and went back to a simple sump and couldn't be happier. This was my experience:

Had a 75 g. tank with simple 10g sump, worked fine. It seemed, at the time, like everyone was building refugiums, growing macro, etc. so I decided to build one because it sounded like a cool project and I though it would magically solve my consistently high nitrate issues. Bought a 20g tanks, researched designs, and eventually built one, stuck in some sand, some chaeto, a light and off I went.

Now instead of having a couple of layers of filter pads that I changed weekly, I had a filter sock that was a pain and didn't work well. There was less room to work under the tank now so everything was more difficult. Then the chaeto just wouldn't grow, I used all different lights, dosed with iron, you name it. AND now the refugium needed maintenance too. I was spending more time keeping up with the refugium than taking care of the tank, and I never could get the chaeto to grow.

Rotting chaeto in the fuge, filter sock that was a pain and didn't work well, everything was just a mess. Finally I bit the bullet and ditched it, put my old sump back in, and now everything is back to normal and I'm happy as can be. Terrible experience, no lie.

Just my $.02.

 

[AJDunnell]

Thanks very much for the responses!

I have given some thought and if we do end up making a refugium, we will probably do something separate and outside our current setup.

I know from experience as with other things that "somethings are best left alone" as to their original design intent.

 

[JerseyGuy]

No problem.

On a side note....I noticed my local LFS didn't stock macro anymore and I asked the guy about it. He said that the "refugium fad" was subsiding and a lot of people were ditching them. He also said that about 10 years ago the same thing happened, everyone jumped on the fuge bandwagon for a while, then they got tired of maintenance etc. and it faded. I thought that was an interesting observation.

 

[gone fishin]

I got an extra 30g sitting around and have been toying with the idea of making another display tank. This one would be macro algae. Not so much for the fuge side of it but I think they look pretty nice. I would let it drain and return from my existing sump.