Flow rate through refugium??

jasonkola

New member
Ok I ordered me a hob refugium today it is a good size one at arround 5 gallons. I wanted to see what flow rate people recomended for this size refugium. I plan to grow copepods in it as well as some plants that are good at nitrate and phosphate control. Perhaps chaeto. That seems to be the favorite I always hear about. Are there any other good options? so I am trying to figure the flow rate I should push through it. What do you recomend? Jason
 
Also it there any other good plants I could put in there besides chaeto that will be good at nutriant uptake and not go sexual?
 
mangrove's.

flow through your refuge is as slow as you can get it. the larger the fuge the more flow you can have. it takes time for the denitrifing bacteria to work.
 
Well I was thinking of going with about 50 gph. but I may rethink that my pump can be turned down as low as 20 gph. That seems vary slow. I may go with about 30 gph. Mangrove's I never thought of that. I may have to consider that. I may try some of both to see which dose better. Thanks Jason
 
Well after reading up on mangroves I think that is not the way to go as they grow into big trees. And I also read they do not remove much nutrients.

and I also searched some more for my answer to the flow rate. I found this article by anthony calfo.

http://www.reefland.com/rho/0105/main2.php

He recomends a high flow rate of arround 20X turn over of the water in the refugium. I am not sure if he recomends such a high flow rate because it tumbles the chaeto or why. that would put my flow rate at 100 gph. Now I am back to square one. Not sure what flow rate to run. I may just have to experiment with it as I have a adjustable pump.
 
i have a 55gal refugium with 2 small 150gph power heads and the 800gph over flow i seem to get the bactera algie in mine with out the flow is that bad algie for it??? if so i got rid of it with the flow and my cheto is still growing like crazy
 
You need A LOT of mangroves to really remove nutrients. I have 4 of them on my 75 and I think they are more for show.
 
I have been thinking about the flow rate. I think 20X turn over is way too much, sense I want to grow Copepods in there. I will probably dial it back to 30 to 50 gph. I think that would put me at 6 to 10X turn over rate. I think that would be ok for the growth of the copepods and still fast enough to flush some out to the display on a regular basis.
 
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