Display refugium questions

[badwhiskey]

How to you go about setting one up right beside you DT ? Suggestions on water flow and overflow ect/ return pump..

[jestep]

Just set it up like a normal SW / reef tank. The biggest difference is typically the use of macros or mangroves instead of live rock.

 

This is one of my favorites but I would also use a red macro like gracilaria hayi for color and texture:

[badwhiskey]

How do you plumb it together??

[jestep]

You have 2 options.

 

First would be to run a second pump and drain into the sump of the DT. This is the easiest with the lowest possibility for something going wrong since the 2 tanks operate independently of eachother. Need to make sure your sump can handle the volume of both tanks, specifically when the power is turned off.

 

Second would be to run an overflow from the DT into the display fuge, and then an overflow from the display fuge into the sump. This one isn't terrible but you run the risk of something getting clogged in the fuge and basically flooding. It would be a good idea to have both larger and redundant overflows from the fuge to the sump to prevent this. I ran a setup like this for a while and it worked very well, the key is just to design it well to reduce the chance of flooding.

[badwhiskey]

Anyone

I don't have a sump

[jestep]

You would need the refugium to act as a sump then. Overflow into the refugium and use a pump from the refugium back to the tank. This is probably the least idea method because you have to run the water level in the refugium low enough that it can accommodate for whatever siphons from the main tank when the pump is turned off.