How necessary are refugiums?

[nut.meg]

Hi all - new to the board.

 

I've had a BW 10gal up and running for some time, but I just got a 20gal H and I plan to move it over to that and convert my 10gal to a nano-reef.

 

My question is whether refugiums are necessary at all, rather than just nice to have, and should I, along with LR/LS, have:

 

a. a 12" custom H.O.T refugium (and do I need special lighting in addition to what I already have?)

b. my Aquaclear mini as a fuge (and how exactle do I set that up), and a biowheel mini for extra filtration

c. just the aquaclear mini as a fuge

d. just the biowheel mini (as a normal filter)

e. just the Aquaclear (as a normal filter)

 

I'm planning to stick a small power head on there too, and my heater is 50W.

 

My lighting is a 36watt JBJ combo clamp on light (actinic/10000K)

 

I haven't set up the new tank yet - just thought I'd wait and see what advice I got in terms of extra equipment for the nano reef.

 

Much appreciated!

Meg

[Crakeur]

refugiums are not a necessity. If you're going to add one, I would say go with a hang on back as they work great and add the most additional water volume.

 

The only problem you might have is you can't hang a filter on the back if you have the fuge there but you shouldn't need the filter. Just toss powerheads in the tank and you have your circulation.

[Christopher Marks]

Refugiums are definately not a necessity. I prefer to call them an added benefit. Personally, I don't have refugiums on any of my systems. It's not that I don't feel they are useful, I just don't have the time to get one setup and maintain it.

 

If I were to setup a tank with your equipment, I would have the tank with just the LR, LS, and powerhead in it for circulation. I would then add a hang on back filter (the aquaclear mini) to provide a little more surface circulation, and a place to add filter media if needed, or a prefilter sponge to remove larger debris.