Refuge vs. straight Wet/Dry sump??

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MDHatter22

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
32
Location
Long Island, NY
Hey guys,

It's amazing how set you think you are until you start reading everything on here.

I'm getting ready to set up my 150gal. I have a 39 gallon Oceanic Wet/Dry sump. Chould I (if I can even do it) convert it to a fuge instead? Or should I do sort of a hybrid? Maybe with some live sand and some algea in the well? Is that even feesable?

thanks in advance.

mike
 
Sure you could. Depending on the configuration it should work fine. remove the wt/dry portion and add a light and you will be prety much ready for a fuge.
 
Thanks lando.

Couldn't I just keep the trickle part with the bio-balls and convert the reservoir area into the fuge? or is that not viable or even counter-productive?

thanks again.
 
What you describe in the above post may be difficult depending on where your pump is located. If your pump is in that resevor then it will be prone to picking up sand. If the pump is external then you would need the bulkhead fitting to be a few inches up from the bottom and still you would have to look at the chance the flow into the sump would pull sand in eventually leading to pump wear.

To have the water depth more than just a few inches you would need to have the bioballs submerged. If your going to submerge the bioballs you might as well put live rock in there instead of bioballs.

I am not fimular with this sump and how its partioned up but you might be able to segment the resevor some and make a mini fuge area between the bioball area and the pump location. Or if you have room you could just work up a little 10gal tank as a fuge and connect it to the sump.
 
IMO, it would be a lot more productive to put the skimmer before the fuge. I would replace the bio balls section with a protein skimmer, making the chamber all the way to the bottom, with a baffle as high as you want your water level. Adding live rock rubble and macro algae into the fuge will give you WAY more filtration than the bio balls. This will allow the protein skimmer to skim the incoming water, and return such water directly to the fuge portion. This will also eliminate any micro bubbles that might escape from the protein skimmer and back into the main tank. HTH
 
I am doing a DIY sump now and everything I have read from everyone here is to place the skimmer before the fuge to keep from skimming out all the good stuff the fuge is growing to send back to the main tank. Check out www.melevsreef.com in his hidden treasures section to see some examples of how he builds sumps. I have not found any set rule on how to set up a sump but some setups are definitely better than others. I have also been told that the bio balls break down over time and are not good for the system. Run a search on refugiums here in the forums and see what others have been building. Good Luck!
 
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