Refugium question...

[JammyBirch]

I've read a lot of posts on here and there seems to be a lot of different ways to set up a sump to clean for the DT. I am in the beginning stages of setting up a 25 gallon reef with a ~15gallon sump. It's going to be a custom sump split for a fuge. One half will house the skimmer the other half I want to have workers, either mud, rock, sand, snails...whatever. What would you suggest, and if that depends on what live stock I go with the answer is I don't know yet...I'm too new and need to read more. Anyway any rule of thumb or unwritten rules around sump/fuge?

 

[davocean]

In that small of a sump you may not get much of a fuge.
This is more or less the time to think about what you plan to keep to set up properly.
If you are doing a fuge for nutrient export, you would benefit better from a reactor of some kind, biopellets, phos.
I would probably go that route, because your system won't be big enough for most that demand pods, and you could always do a HO fuge later if you wish, which is also what I would probably do w/ that size tank/sump.

 

[JammyBirch]

Bio pellets? If those are the balls that filter im not interested in that hear a lot of horror stories about them basically trapping stuff that decays and causes more probes...ill have to look into it more though im a first timer and need to learn as much as possible..

 

[davocean]

You are confusing biopellets w/ bioballs, very different.

 

[Every1jockzjay]

My fuge is BB and i use a turkey baster and suck out the detritus,then shoot it back in through a brine shrimp net, really ez.. Also i would try to buy a few yards of felt and sew ur own filter socks loll i have about 40 of em and got realy good at sewing loll save $$ and makes changin them every 2 or 3 days really ez... Also make sure if u have bubble traps ur fuge still gets flow otherwise chaeto wont grow much, i switched mine from a intake/skimer/U-O fuge O to just taking out the last baffle, my chaeto took off...make sureeeee if everything fails u dont flood thats the most important beyond anything