Refugium size

[dbenenh0]

So after my first post the other day I received a lot of helpful info and Jade5051 even pointed me in the direction of a good looking skimmer that is now on my list.

With that said I started laying out my sump spacing last night and it seems that I could fit a fuge that will hold right at 7.5 gallons. My DT is 75 gallons and the sump is a 29 gal. My question is would a fuge that size be very beneficial to my overall system or is that to small? I know something is better than nothing but if it will not be largely beneficial I can use the space for something else.

 

[DrewHaus]

In general, the larger the fuge, the better. What is your goal for the refugium? Microfauna production? Nutrient export via chaeto or some other macro?

If it were me, I would grow chaeto in there. Just my 2 cents.

 

[gone fishin]

I seem to recall reading in one of the Reef keeping articles that 20% of the water volume is needed for an effective refugium.

I have a 30g stand alone refugium plumbed into my sump. My goal is nutrient reduction and I have to say it has made a difference.

 

[jrr98002]

Bigger is better as said above, but if you just want to have a place to grow pods, that'll be big enough. Nutrient export is where size starts to matter.

 

[dbenenh0]

Nutrient export and growing pods would be the main goal of putting a fuge in my sump. I realize bigger is better (almost always is) but I wasn't sure if I would be wasting time and space doing one of that size in my sump. I figure the volume of water in it would be just under 10% of the entire system, smaller than I would like but I don't have room for a 40 breeder under my stand.

 

[toothybugs]

Is it possible to have an outflow from your display to a fuge (a second tank), which then flows to your sump? That's what I did with my 40B and 29 sump, I thought what was available in the sump was too small for my wants. If it's feasible, a 20H is cheap and would be a significant bump for you.

 

[dbenenh0]

I wish that was an option. It was hard enough to convince the wife to set up a second tank for QT, if I started on a third to keep some "green stuff" in I could see that not going over well lol. Although I did just get her a second dog....