Refugium before skimmer is this bad?

[Augusta99]

Setting up my sump/refugium for my new system, and I'm curious if I'm loosing any benefits of the refugium if the water flow hits the refugium first then the skimmer?

I tried to plumb the system different, but there isn't too much room under a 90 Gal tank for the perfect setup.

Mainly interested in the nitrate removal and pod production of the refugium. Am I going to loose this?

The system is still being set up, so I can change it would just be difficult at this point.

Thanks for the opinions.

 

[osprey3883]

Hello,
You will see the nitrate removal and pod production, but will likely loose the benefit of the pods returning to the display because of the skimmer.
Check the do it yourself forum, there are some great threads on this subject there.

Matt

 

[JustinReef]

I would much rather have the fuge after the skimmer. But if the only way you can have a fuge is before the skimmer, thats better than not having one IMO. How hard would it be to change?

 

[Augusta99]

I'll check out some the DIY formus.

I purchased the system used, and the sump was pretty complicated with different chambers for different functions. It was designed for a miracle mud system, but the refugium area is only 3 gals. I really wanted to do a larger refugium so I was planning on using a different chamber.

Potentially I can have two refugiums in this sump with one pre skimmer and the other post skimmer.

Thanks for the .02