Should my skimmer not be in the fuge?

[jamal-188]

Currenty designing my 50G wal-mart special fuge from a huge rubbermaid container to replace my wet/dry filter. I'm reading all I can on them and even bought a few books but I'm still a little confused on how to build this thing. Is it okay to have my skimmer in the fuge or will it skim out beneficial pods/plankton etc...?

 

[Electrobes]

I am very interested in this answer as well considering I am building a macroalgae tank, and even though I wish the answer to be no, I am betting it will still be a yes, but here's to fingers crossed

 

[reefrunner69]

Is it okay to have my skimmer in the fuge or will it skim out beneficial pods/plankton etc...?

If your going to have a fuge and a sump, I would put it in the sump, if your going to have a fuge/sump combo...I would put it in the first chamber of the fuge, where it feeds water to the fuge rather than after.

 

[Strictly Marine]

you also have to make sure that the flow rate is slow, so that you don't disturb much of the creatures of the fuge.

 

[jamal-188]

you also have to make sure that the flow rate is slow, so that you don't disturb much of the creatures of the fuge.

Well, my overflow box max is 600gph and I was going to make a spray bar to distribute the water into the fuge.

Should I really have a fuge and a sump, I won't have foom for both if I go with a fuge this big?

 

[reefrunner69]

IMO, you'll get best resluts from both, but a fuge/sump combo will do a fine job

 

[jamal-188]

I"m confused then, what would be in the sump, just the skimmer and then would I have it feed from there into my fuge?

I read the whole chapter on fuges in Reef Invertebrates but I'm still confused on how to build this thing, guess I'll go back and read it again and see if I can find pics of how more people have this done.

 

[reefrunner69]

If you use both, you would use a T and a ball valve to split the drain from the tank to the fuge and the sump, the sump would contain all the extra equipment, heaters, skimmer etc...and the fuge would be set up to flow back into the sump. As I said this is "Optimal" because you can control the amount of flow to the fuge and you tend to have more space for your fuge, but the sump/fuge combo does a fine job and is the best choice for those with limited space.