Ok finally getting my refugium set up and have a couple of questions about spacing. I have a 20 gal long. How much of that should be refuge space and what is the ideal spacing for the return section?
Should the return section be bigger than the skimmer section?
Spacing is determined by your nutrient load and your commitment to maintenance. Lightly stocked systen can have a smaller fuge. Larger return section equals less need to top off as frequently. Smaller return section means more room for larger fuge but more frequent top offs.
The skimmer section only needs to be large enough to fit the skimmer and pump.
How’s that for a non-answer answer?
what is a karger fuge?
He meant larger Karen, not karger. Craig has fat fingers. :
: ::
lOl now that makes more sense!!!
[quote=“reefman66, post:24, topic:6777”]
Craig has fat fingers. :: ::[/quote]
fat fingers, fat a$s, fat gut…
Sorry Karen I was replying from my phone and often times my thumbs get in the way.
No problem Craig. I was just making sure there wasnt another kind of fuge that I didnt know about.
my experience has been to have a fuge about the size of the display tank, for best results. IE, just like everything else in life, the bigger , the better. Fuges work! little tiny fuges look cute, and do some good. but big fuges get the job done well.
i may be taking down my tanks for now, but i am a big fan of fuges. when i set up a new system, somewhere, someday, it will have a full flow, highly lit, good circulation, plenum sand bed fuge next to the sump, at least the size of the tank, or bigger. in the basement, when i get a place with a basement, that is. They do good work, but have to be proportional to the bio load . a small fuge can only grow so much macro at one time. so there is a balance to achieve.
My cleanest frag system has a 40 gallon 48 x 18 x 12 frag tank, serviced by a 30 gallon sump, and a 40 breeder fuge below with a plenum sandbed, and a 10 gallon prolifera fuge on the side. so i have 40 gallons of tank and 50 gallons of fuge on that system. and it stays clean. the 40 breeder grows a solid tank size brick of chaeto every month. and the 10 gallon grows a full load of prolifer each month too. i have two large tangs in the tank and a lawnmower blenny and mandarin in the fuge. thats all. they feed and nurish all that macro each month with their waste.
Think: Big tank~~ Bigger fuge!!
with lots of water flow and circulation in them.
That promotes macro growth.
Unfortunately I dont have any space to have a system like that. I only have what space is under the tank. At this time it will only fit a 20 long because of the skimmer. I looked at all tank sizes trying to figure out if I could put a bigger one in there but nothing else worked out. So we just took the 20 long I had and made a little fuge out of it. Hopefully it will do some good! At some point I plan on getting a larger tank and when I do I (my husband) will build a custom stand that will hopefully work out better than what I have.
A small fuge is better than no fuge at all. Even if it’s not big enough to do much filtering, it still provides a safe place for copepods and isopods to reproduce and grow without the threat of being eaten as larvae.
Anytime you can grow some macro algae it will help, even if just a little bit, in this hobby every little bit is a good thing.
yes. we all have the space problem in one way or another. a small fuge does help, but means we have to use other, means of keeping nutrients low. better skimmer, more water changes, denitrators, more phosphate media. I have a similar sized tank on the other side of the room, with a small, drop in fuge. and it has had constant cyano, and turf algae problems. I ve also gotten vary lax on the cleaning. that doesnt help either. None the less, it ran good and looked good as long as i kept up the cleaning, filter changes and water changes. things still work.
You can make yours work well too.
Here is the finished product!
Very nice! He did a good job YahoO
One trick I learned that I’ll share in case you don’t have a media reactor and want to run carbon… You can get a carbon filter pad and chip clip it to one of the baffles in the sump. This adds extra filtration and forces all water running through the fuge to be forced over/through the carbon pad.
Yes he did do a good job!! I guess he got his brownie points for the day GolfC
Does it matter which baffle or any will do ? Also what other filter media does everyone use? Where is a good place to put the phosban reactor?
Looks great Karen.
Its all hooked up!!!
The next project will be working on those wires!!!
[quote=“reefman66, post:35, topic:6777”]
Looks great Karen.[/quote]
Thanks A!
Ken,does that mean your cleaning out some live stock?
Thats a nice job on the sump. and under tank plumbing. you have a fairly decent size fuge area there, considering. and it is in a full flow location, that is good. give it lots of light for the macro to tumble and grow.
the phosban reactor can just hang on the outside of the sump. they are made for that.
Wire clutter is always a problem. I took small sections of plywood, big enough to mount a couple two or three power strips to with screws and tie wraps through a couple small drilled holes. and make apower distribution panel that can be placed near the sump or tank, but just out of the way of any overflow, leakage splash or spillage. most of the loads, powerheads and stuff are small watts., but if the strip gets wet , you can have a meltdown and fire. so i keep mine to the side on a panel of power strips. easily accesable too. you can label each plug.
Karen I think it’s time for a bigger tank!!! ::hitsthefan::