Plumbing to refugium

[Fish-guy]

I saw this sump layout and was wondering why someone would have a separate drain on the T and with a ball valve going to the refugium. Won't the water from the sump flow in the refugium anyways? Or is it better to have water coming from the top as well?

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

It won't flow there with the fuge being AFTER the return pump. It would need a separate drain to get water into it.

 

[Mebbid]

It's just a way for them to control the flow going through the cheato. Generally a bad idea since cheato likes high flow though.

 

[fort384]

I personally think this is a good way to setup a fuge. The only flow will be however fast you allow it to drain to the fuge. You can slow it way down and allow more contact time for the water in the fuge.

 

[TommyP]

I saw this sump layout and was wondering why someone would have a separate drain on the T and with a ball valve going to the refugium. Won't the water from the sump flow in the refugium anyways? Or is it better to have water coming from the top as well?
View attachment 219146

This image shows the return in the center. The water would flow in to the left, then to the center then back to the DT. There's a seperate drain going to the fuge, so that gets flow as well.

 

[mr_X]

I agree with Mebbid. Algae only absorbs what nutrients it needs to grow. More contact time won't do anything. Also, the refugium is to be a breeding ground for pods. If the flow is creeping through, I believe that most of the pods will be staying put, and not making it to the DT.

 

[fort384]

In this case, I would make the argument that contact time is more important for beneficial bacteria in any live rock fragments in the fuge area, not necessarily for contact time with the algae. I think that is the general reasoning behind slowing down flow to a fuge.

I couldn't tell you first hand as I have a fuge, but it runs at the same flow rate as the rest of the sump.

 

[fort384]

Just doing some looking around, it looks like recommended flow rates vary WIDELY from source to source. A lot of opinions out there, probably no right (or wrong way) to do it.

For simplicity's sake, certainly 1 drain makes the plumbing job a bit easier.