I am thinking about Turning a 20 g long tank into a refugium under my 75 g fowlr. The tank would use lifereef overflows. My question is can I have the whole 20 g a refugium? Everybody seems to have a sump and the fuge is just a section of it. I have a hob skimmer that I am satisfied with. Also the overflows rec a 900 gph return pump to compensate for aquarium height. How do I slow the flow of the fuge to be effective? I was planning on just using a canister with phosphate removal media, but researching points to refugium being better?
Refugium vs sump confused
- Thread starter chirojosh
- Start date
You can but I wouldn't 
The fuge I think ideally needs low flow and a light on it. The best way to do that is to only use a fraction of your sump. More then likely at some point your skimmer will not cut it..... I would bet most hang on the back skimmers aren't designed for a tank your size and a in sump model will greatly out perform it. Make a sump so you have a fuge.... Skimmer chamber... Bubble trap then a area for the return pump. Life will be much much easier in the long run!
You could t off the pump return to the tank and fuge with a valve to adjust flow on each line
You could also put a small pump in the sump to feed the fuge, that is if you only use part of the sump as the fuge
My tank I have part of the water from my drain going directly to the fuge with the other water going directly to my in sump protein skimmer. I plan on buying a new larger external skimmer and plan on putting 100% of the water from my overflow directly to the skimmer. Part of the skimmed water would be going to the fuge and the rest of the skimmed water would be going into where a internal skimmer would sit. I might put a bio pellet reactor in there with the bio pellet exh going directly into the skimmer.
The fuge I think ideally needs low flow and a light on it. The best way to do that is to only use a fraction of your sump. More then likely at some point your skimmer will not cut it..... I would bet most hang on the back skimmers aren't designed for a tank your size and a in sump model will greatly out perform it. Make a sump so you have a fuge.... Skimmer chamber... Bubble trap then a area for the return pump. Life will be much much easier in the long run!
You could t off the pump return to the tank and fuge with a valve to adjust flow on each line
You could also put a small pump in the sump to feed the fuge, that is if you only use part of the sump as the fuge
My tank I have part of the water from my drain going directly to the fuge with the other water going directly to my in sump protein skimmer. I plan on buying a new larger external skimmer and plan on putting 100% of the water from my overflow directly to the skimmer. Part of the skimmed water would be going to the fuge and the rest of the skimmed water would be going into where a internal skimmer would sit. I might put a bio pellet reactor in there with the bio pellet exh going directly into the skimmer.
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