Reducing Refugium size?

[ellisz]

Hi all,

I have a fuge that is separte from my sump. I have a [acronym:d759fa4cb2="power head or Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions, depending on context"]PH[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] that supplies water to the fuge and then it gravity feeds back into the sump. I now have a sump that has an area for a fuge that currently has a little bit of sand and [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] in it but no macros.

I have been considering taking the fuge down and setting it up in the sump. Current fuge is in a 25 [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] rubbermaid with around 15 [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] water. My sump/fuge combo has a 24 [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] water capacity. Tank is a 75 [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:d759fa4cb2].

Pros:
[acronym:d759fa4cb2="Deep Sand Bed"]DSB[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] in the new fuge since the current fuge has a SSB
More room in my sump room
simpler setup

Cons:
Less water volume and sand bed surface area.

Do you think the addition of the [acronym:d759fa4cb2="Deep Sand Bed"]DSB[/acronym:d759fa4cb2] would outweigh the loss of water volume? There is nothing wrong with my current setup but sometimes simpler is better.

Thanks

[phases99]

If your tank is stable and not overstocked the loss of 15% water volume should not cause any harm. A remote [acronym:a6090bac81="Deep Sand Bed"]DSB[/acronym:a6090bac81] will eventually help with denitrification so in effect it may balance out.