size for refugium

[Kehaulani]

How big should a refugium be for a 75 gallon tank? Width, length, height? I've been reading different things here and there and was curious on what would work best. Any advice, suggestions, styles would be helpful to me. I'm still new to the hobby and learning things as I go. Thanks guys

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/r2...-thread-you-could-win-tunze-9012-skimmer.html

 

[TurboReef]

It's hard to give you an exact size to make it without knowing the footprint of your skimmer or how you are going to do your drains. But as a general rule of thumb, the bigger you can make it, the better it will be. Another thing to make sure of is that you do your refugium BEFORE your skimmer, that way you get more nutrients to your macroalgaes.

 

[Reefing Madness]

The biggest sump you can stuff under the tank is best.
How does a sump work? | Melev's Reef

 

[Kehaulani]

OK gotcha. I have a reef octopus xs diablo skimmer.

 

[Thunderfan]

Good luck finding an answer. I am very new also and setting up my first tank. The standard answer is always as big as you can when it comes to sump and refugium questions. As far as layout of your sump and refugium you can read about a hundred different ways to do it and people can make great arguments for every one. I finally just picked one that made the most sense to me and that's what I'm going with. Oh, and let's not leave out the people that say that a fuge is not that beneficial either because they have good arguments as well. From what I've found is that there are many ways to do your set up and you just have to roll with what you feel best with and adjust to what ends up working for you. My sump I am building is from a 30g tank which is 36 long and 11 3/4" wide inside the tank. The drain/skimmer area is 10"x10" tall, then bubble trap which is almost 3", then 10" for the return, the next baffle is 13" tall so that makes the fuge area about 13"x13"x 11 3/4". I will tee off the return and put a valve to the fuge that way I can adjust the flow to it. I went through many combinations on my mind before this finally made the most sense. I stole this image from a guy on another forum but, this is how my drain and sump set up will be. My display is also a 75g.

 

[JMSKI333]

My refugium is almost half the water column of my display tank. My display is a 90g and my refugium is 40g. For the longest time I had a 5 gallon refugium under my stand because that was all I could fit and it didn't do much honestly. It was just big enough to grow chaeto in.

 

[JFrar]

i agree with reefing madness. I have a 85 gal DT and a 20 gal sump/refuge underneath, i would love to fit a 55 gal underneath for more total water volume(more stable parameters) if you keep up with your #'s

 

[Kehaulani]

thanks thunderfan. That really helped. It's hard because like you said everyone argues the subject and says this work this doesn't work and when you're new to the hobby it's hard to decide which way is best. That really helped though. I appreciate it .

 

[Skydvr]

Part of why everybody seems to disagree is because it depends on what you want your refugium to do.

If you want it to supply pods and such to your tank, you probably don't want the skimmer after the fuge. You may want it setup like Thunder's diagram, but with the return line split to feed the fuge at a slow rate so it is receiving detritus and uneaten food to support the population.
If you just want a place to grow macro to help nutrient export, keep it simple and keep the sand and rubble out of there, use chetao (sp?), and the placement of the skimmer (before or after) isn't critical.
Nutrient export and macro for feeding aquarium inhabitants, may need sand or rocks for the macro's hold fasts (they don't have actual roots) depending on the type, and you probably want the skimmer after the fuge to provide more nutrients for the macro.
Some other goals may require other considerations.
You may just want an empty area between the return section and drain section for detritus to settle out, in which case you would most likely want the skimmer in the drain section.



But yeah, the general consensus is "as large as you can fit".

Figure out what you want the fuge to do first, then the design process becomes a nit more clear.

 

[Zdaniels]

Good luck finding an answer. I am very new also and setting up my first tank. The standard answer is always as big as you can when it comes to sump and refugium questions. As far as layout of your sump and refugium you can read about a hundred different ways to do it and people can make great arguments for every one. I finally just picked one that made the most sense to me and that's what I'm going with. Oh, and let's not leave out the people that say that a fuge is not that beneficial either because they have good arguments as well. From what I've found is that there are many ways to do your set up and you just have to roll with what you feel best with and adjust to what ends up working for you. My sump I am building is from a 30g tank which is 36 long and 11 3/4" wide inside the tank. The drain/skimmer area is 10"x10" tall, then bubble trap which is almost 3", then 10" for the return, the next baffle is 13" tall so that makes the fuge area about 13"x13"x 11 3/4". I will tee off the return and put a valve to the fuge that way I can adjust the flow to it. I went through many combinations on my mind before this finally made the most sense. I stole this image from a guy on another forum but, this is how my drain and sump set up will be. My display is also a 75g.

Great simple diagram here!! Right on point! I haven't had mine built yet for the 210 display but the refugium is going to be about 30 gallons...check out my thread!

 

[Lex_510]

Good luck finding an answer. I am very new also and setting up my first tank. The standard answer is always as big as you can when it comes to sump and refugium questions. As far as layout of your sump and refugium you can read about a hundred different ways to do it and people can make great arguments for every one. I finally just picked one that made the most sense to me and that's what I'm going with. Oh, and let's not leave out the people that say that a fuge is not that beneficial either because they have good arguments as well. From what I've found is that there are many ways to do your set up and you just have to roll with what you feel best with and adjust to what ends up working for you. My sump I am building is from a 30g tank which is 36 long and 11 3/4" wide inside the tank. The drain/skimmer area is 10"x10" tall, then bubble trap which is almost 3", then 10" for the return, the next baffle is 13" tall so that makes the fuge area about 13"x13"x 11 3/4". I will tee off the return and put a valve to the fuge that way I can adjust the flow to it. I went through many combinations on my mind before this finally made the most sense. I stole this image from a guy on another forum but, this is how my drain and sump set up will be. My display is also a 75g.

How did this layout work out ?