thoughts on removing refugium?

icemountain · Apr 9, 2013

My current system consists of a 125 gallon tank, 29 gallon fuge, and a 20 gallon sump. Its set up so the 125 drains into the fuge which then drains into the 20 sump. From there, the water is pumped back up to the display tank. My system is a full reef with I would say a medium to high bioload. The "fuge" section consists of a DSB of about 7" and about 15lbs of LR that I wasn't able to incorporate it into my rock scape in my Dt so I threw it down in the fuge area. I am considering removing the 29 fuge and just have the tank drain directly into the sump instead of the fuge. What are your thoughts on this? good idea? bad idea? If its okay for me to do so, how should I go about doing it so it isn't a total shock to the system. If its more harm then good, I will probably just leave it.

46gReef · Apr 9, 2013

Is there a particular reason for wanting to remove the fuge section? I'm of the "if it isn't broke don't fix it" school. Were you planning on upgrading your sump? My initial thought is volume(why reduce it?), my next thought would be beneficial bacteria in your DSB/LR in there(why remove them?)......

icemountain · Apr 9, 2013

I just wanted to have a simpler setup and could use the extra space for maybe a 15 gallon frag tank instead in place of the 29 fuge. Again, if it would cause more harm, I would rather leave it because I don't want to lose my reef from shock or something. But if it is safely doable, I would like to do it.

Squishie89 · Apr 9, 2013

My first thought is to do it slowly if possible. Removing the rock a couple pieces every week or 2. Meanwhile keeping an attentive eye on paramegers and corals. My best thought once the rock has been removed is to move the drain from the 29 over to the 20 and continue to carefully monitor parameters. The reason being messing with DSB's can crash or harm systems so I can't see a way to remove it while the water flows through there. You have it set up nicely for this conversion it seems. Disclaimer: these are thoughts and theories, please don't kill me if you attempt this and it doesn't work.

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Zack · Apr 9, 2013

I doubt it would caus harm if you removed it Tons of.people including myself dont use refugiums. So i would think your fine to take it out, i would just be careful to not disturd the dsb as you remove it. Also from what i understand , for a refugium to be actually work as a method for nutrient control it has to be huge. So i think most fuges are just a place for pods to reproduce anyway.