refugium flow how much??

[Hendersonracing]

I have a 60 gallon refugium.....Im getting a seio 620 for flow through it...I have 2 maxi jets now....


My ?????is how much flow?????? and how much gph going through it?????


I have heard low flow and low water movement(gph going back to sump)///

[RamPuppy]

refugiums need to be LOW flow, the slower the better, not to the point of stagnation obviously, but slow is good.

low flow does a couple things:

* allows detrius to settle out in the fuge where stuff that will eat it lives

* increases contact time with your macro algae allowing it a chance to utilize the nutrients in the water.

[geekreef_05]

meh, depends on how you design your fuge, but generally RamPuppy (how porno is his name) is right.

I used to run everything at high flow, but I had a sheet of filter floss in the sump that caught everything. It needed to be tossed out weekly, but it did its job. Use to buy the stuff in big rolls from the LFS.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree that low flow allows detritus to settle, if that is a goal, but I do not believe that low flow encourages nutrient uptake (same with using a binder like GFO).

Yes, the lower the flow the bigger will be the drop in nutrients as water passes through the refugium and out again, but that is not the goal. The goal is to lower the tank levels of nutrients, and faster flow (assuming that you are not beating up the macroalgae) will cause equal or higher nutrient uptake per unit of time than will lower flow. It will be the same unless the low flow allows nutrients to drop enough that the algae become nutrient limited (or more nutrient limited) than with higher flow. In that cause raising the flow rate can actually export more nutrients.

All that said, there is no great driving force for the flow rate to be especially high. If you turn over the tank volume once an hour, that should be plenty since most refugia are not so efficient that each pass will take nutrients down a lot in that time frame.

[RamPuppy]

thanks for the clarification Randy!

as for my porno name... you dirty little boy. :)

if you ever played quake, you will understand that the kill phrases made the name even funnier...

"Deathdealer was gibbed by RamPuppy's Rocket" etc...

good times.

[Hendersonracing]

well Mine is probably an hour turnover.....what about a powerhead in the refugium??? Im beginning to see alot more algae buildup in the fuge(good or bad)?? and how many people clean the glass in the fuge??

[Waxxiemann]

I'm running a couple of small powerheads in my fuge (20 gallon), just some old ones I had kicking around. I also clean the glass cause I like to be able to view it at night time, it has some small fish and live rock in it as well.

I'm probably putting about 100 GPH through it. I would actually prefer to have it a little higher but I busted one of my ball valves and now I basically have no control.

I tried it with SUPER low flow (no powerheads) but I had some problem aglae. I added powerheads and it went away.

[HippieSmell]

I've had both a low and high flow fuge, and high flow is much better. The low flow (100 gph through a 20 gal fuge) was a disgusting settling chamber. The new one (40 gal fuge with ~1000 gph flow) is much better. You don't want excessive settling. You should keep as much in suspension as possible to allow the skimmer to remove it.

[Hendersonracing]

I bought a seio 1100 for flow in my 60 gallon refugium!!