Quigley

That should be easy enough. I was planning in having it on a separate pump any way. I can just stick it in and turn it on as needed.

Back to the drawing board. I can see Impur’s point about lowering the flow in the refugium. I suppose the macros need some time to do their job not to mention the fact that one of the other purposes of a refugium, that donned on me this morning as I digested last nights reading, is to provide a refuge for small organisms that would normally not thrive in the display tank. I don’t think they will thrive if they are being flushed from the refugium by a heavy flow of water. Back to the drawing board perhaps I could consider a larger protein skimmer and have it feed water to the refugium. I will still need a protein skimmer that has a slim profile or that can be housed outside the sump/ refugium.

I think you are right about the bio media. I have done a bit more reading and it sounds like the bio dose a bit to good of a job of breaking down waste into nitrates so that the anaerobic bacteria can't keep up and nitrates spike. Is there something else I should put into this chamber or just save the space to add phosphate sponges or carbon if needed? I suppose I can throttle back the flow on the dart if I need to for the macro algae but I don’t want to compromise water flow in the main tank.

How to post pictures. You can upload your pictures to tinypic.com they will create a list of links that you can cut and copy into your post. If you prepare the picture by saving it for the web and making sure that the file size is not to large your picture should appear just fine.

I am designing a 55 gal refugium to go under a 75 gal aquarium that I want to set up as a sps reef. The idea with this design is that I can view the refugium as well as the tank. (I will have to custom build a stand.) I also figured that having the water pass through the long viewing area would provide a lot of contact time with macro algae and live rock to help remove pollutants. Since this is my first foray into reef keeping I would like to do it right so if any one has any comments or advice about this design or recommendations for equipment or plumbing I would greatly appreciate it. I have included a drawing of the intended design. Water will enter via two 1.5”returns in the back/middle then pass through open cell foam and some bio media. It will exit to the right into a chamber with a protein skimmer. (An urchin has been suggested.) Then the water will flow over a slotted baffle into the front viewing area/refugium where I plan to have a lot of macro algae and live rock. I have considered having a plenum in this area but there seems to be no consensus on whether this would be a worth while endeavor or a waste of time. After passing through the viewing area the water will flow over the baffle into the sump on the back where there will be pump to a UV sterilizer, the heater and possibly back up heater, and a float valve for a fresh water top off connected to a R.O. filter. I am planing to have the tank drilled to hook up an external pump (Reef flow dart?) to return the water to the main tank.