refugium

[RocketSurgeon]

I'm thinking of converting from a wet/dry trickle filter with bio balls to a refugium with a sand bed. How do you determine what size refugium is required? Of course, I would imagine the larger the better, but is there a secret formula or a requirement to ensure you have enough filtration?
My particular tank in question is a 70 gallon with drilled overflow box.

[fishboyt]

I believe refugiums are just an area away from all the water flow where copepods can live, hence the name. In that case, I think you would still want a sump for filtration. That's just what I pick up from hearing what people say. :)

[RocketSurgeon]

With that way of thinking, I should keep my wet/dry trickle filter with bio balls and simply add a refugium?

[Darbex]

A normal wet/dry size should be adequate enough. Of course more is better since you are increasing the total water volume of the tank. You wont need a sump in addition to a fuge.

[nacra99]

Hi!
Welcome to the fishbox!

As a personal choice, i would ditch the bioballs and replace with bits of live rock rubble. In my experience, bioballs are great at turning ammonia into finally nitrAtes. This is great for freshwater, but terrible for saltwater. Live rock rubble are mildly better because they not only do they do the job of bioballs by supporting aerobic bacteria, but also a certain amount of anerobic bacteria (which removes nitrAtes).

but anyway ... the refugium... no secret formula but my advice is always "as large as you can comfortably fit under your tank stand" (assuming that your refugium is in a sump rather than a "hang on back" or "in - tank" type. Larger sump = larger volume of water which is mostly better for water quality. Like fishboy said, the fuge not only supports little critters like copepods and stuff which are essential in the marine food chain, but many people put a clump of macroalgae (such as chaetomorpha) in there to help suck up the excess nutrients (like phospohates & nitrates) in the water. So usually, it is the larger the better. The larger your sump is, the more stuff you can have in there (within another chamber), to fit all your junk like skimmers and heaters and stuff.

[tang-chaser]

the secret formula is M=Tx+N+G%[KY+DGxGD]97-K12+198460.67882 its common algebra so i shouldn't have to walk you through it.

[tang-chaser]

nacra is right ditch the balls. and a refugeum is the way to go on a reef tank. it will also help you keep fish like the mandarin that is by far the most colorful fish. There is another thread posted that talks about modding trickle filters. And has a diagram of how i modded mine. Just make sure it can fit under the stand because it was a b!^# to drain the tank so i could bust out a brace to get mine under the stand. here is a link. http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforum...fugium-designs

[i_am_poor]

You are better off leaving the wetdry alone and get a 20g long to mod into a sump for cheap.

[Stickboy97]

It may be a little hard to figure without trial and error but make sure you have enough extra unused space (volume) in your sump/fug to accommodate the flow from a power outage. Or else you'll wind up with water on the floor. I've reworked mine twice to make room, but better now than if the power goes out.