thinking about installing an above tank refugium

[nickyblase]

I have some space in the cabinet we built to the right of the display tank, and an extra 10g lying around, so I was toying with the idea of putting a couple bulkheads in it and installing a fuge up on the top shelf.

The bottom of the 10g would be at the same level as the top of the display, and my thoughts were that I would just gravity feed the fuge into the display (so pods, etc could flow into the display without getting chopped up).

From what I've read so far, it sounds like micro bubbles will be a concern.

Does anyone have any pics of theirs, or any recommendations of how I could set this up?

My display is a 125G. Is a 10G fuge too small and thus a waste of time? I've got a 38-ish gallon sump in the stand as well.

 

[JohnK]

I have a 20L ref above my display. Yes microbubbles are an issue.

What I ended up doing was to drill both ends of the ref, one end drains into the display and one into the frag tank directly below the ref. I tuned the drains so that the display gets just a tiny bit of bubbles, but the smaller frag tank gets kind of a lot of bubbles. I don't look at that much so it's not a big deal IMO.

If I did it over agian, I'd run one drain to the display, but it would be at a signifigantly lower flow rate. To make up for that, I'd have a PH or one of pats seaflow kits running in the ref to keep the water moving, but keep the real flow rate quite low. Otherwise, I suspect that the microbubbles would end up being a constant annoyance.

LMK if you want some pics of my set up.

jk

 

[nickyblase]

that helps - thanks John. I will probably do what you mention- Just have one drain going into the display, but dial it back quite a bit, and use a powerhead for in-tank flow.

What are your thoughts about tank size though? I have a 10G and a 20G. I would prefer to use the 10G just for the ease of space, but then again, I'd get double the volume in a 20. Will it really make that much of a difference?

 

[JohnK]

I don't know on volume? My system is about 180G total and the 20G seems good (but how to judge??).

IMO the one big plus with the bigger ref is more room for DSB (if you want to have a DSB in there). Othewise, I'd think it's just a matter of how often you have to pull out cheato. As is I toss about a half a 5 gal bucket of the stuff every month or two.

 

[JBendel]

Always one for self-promotion ... the link below is is an overhead refugium with a light surge done a few years ago... I am in the process of moving this over to my 180 (30 gallon being shutdown). I agree with John ... outside of DSB .. a 10 gallon should be fine producing plenty of pods and growing lots of cheato .

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37241&highlight=refugium+surge