refugium

[woodys313]

can i take a 30 gal tank and put live sand and live rock and some plants and light it, use my protien skimmers to move the water from my 30 to my 75 and back again, and is that what a refugium is.

 

[Kazarko]

you need an overflow box too to get water into the sump/refugium if your tank is not predrilled. I use just a regular pump in my sump going back to the display tank. I would consider it to be a sump and not a refugium unless you have a dedicated space for a refugium. I would not use sand in a sump unless it was in a refugium container(separate section) because it might otherwise get into the pump and ruin it. Rocks and cheato would work in a sump.

 

[woodys313]

so whats the difference from running the skimmer in the main tank with sand and the other tank with sand

 

[Bifferwine]

Nothing. Except if it's in the sump it's not taking up space in your display tank and making your display look unsightly. It still works the same way.

 

[woodys313]

so is this feezable or do i need to do something else

 

[mng777777]

freezable?

 

[wontonflip]

LOL I thought that, too, justin...until I reread it and i think he meant 'feasible'....his original plan. I think? :)

 

[mng777777]

ha ha ha! I read that too quick. Sorry OP!

 

[woodys313]

ok so i cant spell, but i figured out how to build my own overflow, now how big of a pump am i going to need for this setup:

75 gal tank down to a 30 gal tank and back up again.

i am going to use 3\4 inch pvc to build my overflow

 

[Rcpilot]

Mag 7
Outlet thread is 3/4" NPT

With head pressure and pipe loss it should be just about perfect flow through your sump. Typically you want to move 3x to 5x the tank volume per hour through the sump. 4 x 75 would be 300gph. 5 x 75 would be 375gph. Thats about what a Mag 7 is gonna be after pipe loss and 4 feet of head. If it's too much, run a bypass tee in the return line and dump it back into the skimmer compartment. Control it with a ball valve.

You'll need a few powerheads in the tank for random flow.