flow in refugium

[ganjero]

Do you need to have a lot of flow in refugium o not at all?

1200 gph in a 20g refugium, too much?

 

[pledosophy]

it's cool IMO

 

[HippieSmell]

It's hard to have too much flow. As long as you don't have microbubbles it will be fine, just be sure to have baffles.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

It would only matter on the practical end of things. The more flow through the refugium, or sump for that matter, the more issues you have to deal with in terms of noise, bubbles, etc. You definitely do not need that much flow, but if you can manage it I don't see a problem.

 

[tigerarmy40]

so there is nothing saying that at these speeds the majority of the water is not being filtered due to passing the macro and things too fast?

 

[ganjero]

I'm talking more about the flow inside the refugium, not the water flowing through the refugium...mmm....let me explain. I dont have the typical setup, sump/refugium with baffles, I have a 20gallon connected to my system as a refugium, so the water is flowing at a rate of 500gph and this is also the the only thing creating currents in there. I want to know if is ok for me to put, let's say, a koralia in there to move things around so the macrolagae does better.

 

[Hop]

I would say that it is impossible to put a reasonable number to it. Each fuge is different and it's purpose on your tank is different. Some have rocks or sand or macro or xena or all of the above. Ideally you want enough so you don't get cyno, but not so much that you have sandstorms or that it blasts your other stuff around. I think the best way to figure it our in your system is to play with it

 

[ClayWagner]

Too much IMO causes more particulate in the tank...or at least with my experience...

 

[Playa-1]

I agree that it really depends on your system. I for one am in the process of setting up a 90 gallon tank and will only be putting approximately 300 gph thru the sump

 

[ClayWagner]

I have a 90gal with just a little over that and it works. Water crystal clear.

 

[gsoaxionsk8]

if you actually want the macro algae to have some sort of impact on nutrient uptake, the water flow needs to be on the slower side of things. Otherwise you will have a refugium with a bunch of algae that isnt extracting nutriets out of the water.