Refugium And Skimmer

[james stanford]

Skimmer before or after refugium and reasons why?

Thanks!

 

[Travis Stewart]

Mine is before but just because my sump is set up that way.

 

[Sumo Reef]

I have mine right next to each other. But only because such little room. I would say fuge first though so it has better access to nutrients before skimming.

 

[gcarroll]

In the end, it shouldn't matter much. Some might argue that pods won't make it through the skimmer but juvenile pods are so small they are virtually everywhere. Neither method of filtration changes water chemistry fast enough to effect one another either.

 

[Anthonyl]

Sorry I'm new to this and about to build my own 90g sump. Wouldn't nutrients still get to the refugium if the skimmer is placed before? The skimmer wouldn't process 100% of the water passing thru.

 

[joseserrano]

I agree with Greg, but have in the past put refugium before skimmer, just to in my mind give the macro algae first shot at waste removal

 

[KMench]

I have my skimmer before the fuge. I don’t think it matters too much IMO. Like you said, the skimmer isn’t filtering all the water coming in, and my chaeto is still growing

 

[Forsaken77]

I put the skimmer first simply so the algae doesn't get all gacked up with detritus. You're correct in that the skimmer will leave plenty of nutrients behind for the algae.

 

[roberthu526]

Refugium takes mostly inorganic matters based on my understanding while skimmer removes mostly dissolved protein which is organic. So these two should not interfere with each other.

 

[james stanford]

In the end, it shouldn't matter much. Some might argue that pods won't make it through the skimmer but juvenile pods are so small they are virtually everywhere. Neither method of filtration changes water chemistry fast enough to effect one another either.

Thanks! I’m getting the Red Sea 750 and the refugium in the sump is too small so I’m looking at alternatives like converting the sock chamber to a second refugium or just putting the skimmer in the refugium chamber and using the skimmer chamber for the refugium, but that will really limit options for skimmer and reactors.

 

[james stanford]

Sorry I'm new to this and about to build my own 90g sump. Wouldn't nutrients still get to the refugium if the skimmer is placed before? The skimmer wouldn't process 100% of the water passing thru.

I would think so.

 

[james stanford]

I have mine right next to each other. But only because such little room. I would say fuge first though so it has better access to nutrients before skimming.

Yes, I recently read that’s what Triton recommends as well.

 

[james stanford]

I agree with Greg, but have in the past put refugium before skimmer, just to in my mind give the macro algae first shot at waste removal

Yes, I agree after the research I’ve done.