Sump/Refuge

[sparky]

I have a 90 gallon tall that i set up ran for 5 months and tour down to move. sold all my fish to a friend and decided not to RUSH this time. Im working on my sump, 30 gallon long, i got my skimmer set in and trying to decide how big to make my refuge? it 15 inches tall, 12 inches wide and after the skimmer is in place, the only way it will fit, i only have about 16 inches of length to work with. i read where it says go as big as possible, but if all my extra space in refuge then my over all water volume is going to drop alot, leaveing only about 15 gallons of water in the sump, without a stop off system in place yet. so where do i draw the line between as much refuge as possible and as much water volume as possible?

PS working towards a fish and reef tank

[Gz28]

My opinion on this is the first priority is making sure all of your equipment and planned future equipment will fit nicely in the sump. then leave a little extra space just incase you find some new piece of equipment that you just have to have, and use the rest as a refuge.
One thing to consider is what is going to be in your refuge, Is it's purpose to stuff alot of live rock on top of a Deep sand bed. or is it mainly to grow copepods and macro algae? it doesnt take alot of room to grow macro algae and copepods..etc so you could make it a little smaller and leave extra space in the sump, for ease of access to the equipment and future expansion. If you are into the deep sand bed/ plenum than you will want it a little bigger.
as far as water volume goes, making a bigger or smaller section for the refuge will not change the water volume, the volume depends on how much stuff you have in the refuge that is displacing water. so if you make it a little bigger than you want, no worries, no one says you have to fill the whole section to the max with live rock and stuff.

[sparky]

im looking at going 6+" of sand, live rock not sure maybe some but then macro algae on top. im not sure what other equipment i might want to put inside the sump besides skimmer, return pump, heater, and a spot for some filtration as needed like spunge. i plain on having RO filter with float top off but that will be in the stand, not in the sump.

so what else might i want in the sump?
i got a large skimmer already.
maybe a closed circuit power head pump?

[Redfish]

What I would do Since you are going slow and in no hurry, I would use the stand you now have as a pattern and make a new, bigger stand for your tank to sit on. Bigger meanning right to left, an extra foot or so on either side means alot more room under the tank. Since you want a refugium, the extra space might allow for a seperate tank for a refugium.

[Gerwin]

I cannot find a lot of fault with gz or redfish posts, but that being said I am not really sold on the whole refugium deal. I have seen great tanks with them and have seen beautiful tanks without them. So which is wrong and which is right? Do you have the room? Do you have the extra money? Do you want to mess with another piece of equipment? What are you really expecting from it and is it the only way to achieve it? I think having another vessel attached to your system has some advantages but more for what arch uses it, a place for frags or coral isolation or even fish isolation. If you answer yes to most of these questions then do it, if the answer is no than don't and don't look back.
You can however incorporate a refugium later and if you still want to do it, don't forget. You can always link it to your sump so you are not minimizing your currents sumps volume.

[Gz28]

Yeah that is what i did with mine i was going to partition my sump off and have a refuge but i just built a custom refuge out of glass and linked it together so that i would have more room in the sump for equipment and more room to work with the equipment when i have to dissconnect for cleaning and maintenance. The main purpose for my refuge was to grow copepods because i wanted a mandrain gobie, And i also like the idea of the macro algae to absorb the nutrients although i dont like the grape looking chalupra stuff, i like the cheato better. I got my reef octopus protein skimmer hooked up and all of my chalupra started dieing off, releasing the toxins back into the tank i think the cheato and the skimmer must have taken care of it because i didnt have any nutrient spike. Another thing i have noticed is pre skimmer the macro grew like crazy, and i had 0 nutrients, after skimmer the macro growth is severly stunted and i still have 0 nutrients, so that being said it makes sense what gerwin said about awesome tanks work either way, and i think that proves that there are many ways to get the same result, I went from almost totally depending on the algae to strip the nutrients to only partially depending on it and i got the same results. In my opinion having the macro as a backup cant hurt...and it makes me feel a little safer! so does the extra water volume of a seperate refuge chained into the sump. although my tank did very well with nothing but carbon, filter floss and macro, I prefer using the macro as a "safe guard" In conjunction with other methods.

[phisher]

Also depends on what you want to accomplish with it. If you just want to grow pods then nothing much is required. If you are looking for a viable nutrient export, its a whole new ball game.

Like Gerwin said, it can be involved and expensive. Personally I would take whatever money and space you have budgeted and put it toward a better skimmer, unless of course you just like the idea of doing a refuge.

[Gz28]

I think you have alot of great information sparky, let us know what you decide and how it goes! Good luck!