Minimum Fuge Size?

[Mort]

Hi all, I finally got around to moving my 75g reef over the weekend from my
home to the office. I was using a converted wet/dry for the refugium but I
decided to upgrade to a 20gal (long) tank that I had laying around. Instead
of keeping it underneath in the stand, I decided to put it next to the
tank(out of the way of course) so that I could get to it a lot easier.

Now that I can get a good look at it, I cant help but wonder if it is too
small. Are there any guidelines for MINIMUM refugium sizes?

TIA

~Mort

[Billy]

"Mort" > wrote in message
...
| Hi all, I finally got around to moving my 75g reef over the weekend
from my
| home to the office. I was using a converted wet/dry for the
refugium but I
| decided to upgrade to a 20gal (long) tank that I had laying around.
Instead
| of keeping it underneath in the stand, I decided to put it next to
the
| tank(out of the way of course) so that I could get to it a lot
easier.
|
| Now that I can get a good look at it, I cant help but wonder if it
is too
| small. Are there any guidelines for MINIMUM refugium sizes?
|

I've been using a 20H for a fuge\sump on my 75g for over a year.
Works great. One of the biggest benifits of a sump is the increase in
water volume. Your 20 gallon sump in increasing the overall water
volume by about 25%. I'd say any increase is a good thing. However,
in retrospect, once I finished putting in the bubble trap and other
partitions, I found myself wishing for a larger one. There isn't
enough room to work in it, there isn't enough room for the equipment
or the stock I want to put in it. So it works, but when I do it
again, I'll go with a 30breeder or something.

hth

billy


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[kim gross]

Depends on what you what the fuge to do. If you want it to provide
enough food to keep some seahorses or anthis alive, I would say at least
as large as the display tank. Now if you are just using it to help
control nitrates, your nitrate reading is the determining factor. If
you still have high nitrate you need a larger fuge.

With that said any size of a fuge is better than no fuge. I had aprox a
3 to 4 gallon hang on fuge on a system with 300+ gallons and it made a
big difference in the algae growth in the whole system, I have another
system of about 100 gallons with a 30 gallon hex fuge and it provides
enough food to keep a single seahorse alive in a 30 gallon tank
downstream from the fuge.

Kim


Mort wrote:

> Hi all, I finally got around to moving my 75g reef over the weekend from my
> home to the office. I was using a converted wet/dry for the refugium but I
> decided to upgrade to a 20gal (long) tank that I had laying around. Instead
> of keeping it underneath in the stand, I decided to put it next to the
> tank(out of the way of course) so that I could get to it a lot easier.
>
> Now that I can get a good look at it, I cant help but wonder if it is too
> small. Are there any guidelines for MINIMUM refugium sizes?
>
> TIA
>
> ~Mort
>
>
>