Refugium flow

[george]

I'm setting up a DSB refugium in a 15g tank (24wx12lx12d) which means after I add 4-5" of sand, I'll have a more-or-less 8-9 gallon water volume. Lighting will be a 96w PC 50/50 fixture (one of the Corlalife quad tubes).

My question is this:

Besides the in-out flow which I am probably going to run off the aquarium overflow or the surplus capability of my regular return pump, do I need any flow sources inside the refugium?

The last time I set up a refugium it seemed awfully stagnant and got fairly regular cyanobacteria blooms.

 

[kevin]

How much flow are you planning on having going through it???

With that size refugium, you could go with a very small pump around 100-200 gph and that will be a lot of flow.

 

[george]

kj_yoda wrote: How much flow are you planning on having going through it???

Here's where I've read conflicting suggestions and since I'm pretty much a "fuge noob", I'm unsure.

I've read that low flow, high dwell is the way to go, but at the same time, I've read that a stagnant fuge without any circulation is no good either. What I wish I could find was something like a 200gph Seio or Tunze type powerhead.

 

[cameron]

All the reading (lots of reading, but no practice) has strongly suggested to pump a limited flow from the main aquarium and place a small powerhead in the sump. Dead flow spots can be very harmful and other than your electric bill apparently a small flow pump doesn't hurt anything.

I have seen lots of fuges without any pump in them that seem to be doing just fine however.

 

[kwl1763]

I've run alll mine either t'd off the return or from the drain with no issues.

You should be able to run enough through it like that. If you can't however as suggested best think to do would be to get like a mini jet

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MINI-JET404&Category_Code=Maxijet">http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MINI-JET404&Category_Code=Maxijet</a>

That way you could get a little exta flow with very little extra power.

 

[kevin]

kwl1763 wrote: I've run alll mine either t'd off the return or from the drain with no issues.

You should be able to run enough through it like that. If you can't however as suggested best think to do would be to get like a mini jet

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MINI-JET404&Category_Code=Maxijet">http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MINI-JET404&Category_Code=Maxijet</a>

That way you could get a little exta flow with very little extra power.[/QUOTE]

Those pumps are what I was thinking of

 

[george]

In pondering this problem of flow without "blast" (it's Friday. don't tell me you're hard at work either ...) it suddenly hit me:

One of those hang-on Hagen filters would do the job perfectly. mod the intake to diffuse the suction, remove the filters, and then I have a gentle, diffuse flow source with no real "blast zone".