Need opinions on Frag tank Sump

[Xclusive Reef]

I am building a frag tank thats 18 x 18 x 9 and want to put a sump on it. I am looking at 2 options :

1- Icecap nano sump ( no location for refugium) sump is 15 x 15
2- Eshopps nano Medium ( Has a place for Refugium) sump is 18 x 18

opinions on which is better?

 

[Bryson.bobby]

I have no experience whatsoever on frag tanks, but imo I would go with the one with the refugium so u can have a place to add your live rock unless you’re planning on adding an separate refugium.

 

[Bropar_Marty]

I actually started a thread about starting a frag tank. You can get super into it and get everything a display tank has, but it's really not needed. I say go with the one that has a fuge part just in case just for the xtra room. Your bio load is going to be minimal so frequent water changes will be enough so don't need a skimmer same thing goes with a fuge you won't be feeding the tank enough to sustain the algae or the algae will take all the nutrients and the corals will starve. With the extra space with the Eshopps you can add bio media.

 

[Kyl]

My frag tank (30x22x10) issues are lack of nitrates, which means the chaeto I tried to grow in it was completely pointless. Granted it right now has few fish, but ideally I have no fish (doubles as invert/ coral fallow qt tank). The skimmer does pull a fair bit out since I feed it heavily (due to lack of detectable nitrates & to get my LPS growing faster), but it's a nano sized K2-50 from Icecap.

 

[LIreefguy]

Go with the bigger sump.
The extra space won’t hurt. Plus if you ever need to put live rock , cheato, bio ball , marine pure blocks into it later on, it is there for you