HOB Refugium Setup Question

[lubyone1]

Hi and thanks for all the advice so far!

Tank is going on 3 weeks old and my parameters are as follows

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - >3ppm
Calcium 330 (low i know - have ordered kalkwasser to use in top off tank)
Ph - 8.3-8.4
Salinity -1.025
Temp - 79.5
Alk - 11

All of these parameters have been steady for the last 8-10 days. However, you guys were right about adding fish too soon as we lost one of our clowns. A buddy said we may have had a short ammonia spike overnight that killed him (although he didn't look "fantastic" at the store to begin with.

I'm running a 75g megaoverflow with CPR BakPak2, 2 pengiun powerheads (1140), koralia 3 on the way, 300watt heater (is this too big? - essentially I keep it at the lowest setting and my tank still sits consistently at 79 degrees). I've also got a phosban reactor and carbon media in a bag in the 10 gallon sump which feeds back up to the tank through a magdrive 7 into a mod hose circle flow assembly. I filled the tank with 50% tap and 50% RO. All top off is RO from our culligan sink filter.

Now onto my question - my stand has a center brace in it which limits the size of a sump I can have below so I've resorted to buying a HOB refugium (i'll be getting it next month). The fuge will sit on a ledge right behind my tank which will put it about 1-2 inches above the level of my tank. I'd rather not put more ugly fixtures into my tank but will do so if I have to. The question I have is can you put a small rio/hagen powerhead inside the mega overflow to feed the refugium or would this be a bad idea because of the fact that it will pump in "dirty" surface water? I suppose I could put the powerhead behind the live rock and just run a tube up to the fuge. All feedback is appreciated! Sorry for the runon - that was way too much typing to get to my simple question. I just want to make sure that I'm doing things right and am trying to slow down lol.

[omard]

Originally Posted by lubyone1

Hi and thanks for all the advice so far!

... can you put a small rio/hagen powerhead inside the mega overflow to feed the refugium or would this be a bad idea because of the fact that it will pump in "dirty" surface water? I suppose I could put the powerhead behind the live rock and just run a tube up to the fuge. All feedback is appreciated! Sorry for the runon - that was way too much typing to get to my simple question. I just want to make sure that I'm doing things right and am trying to slow down lol.

Good idea..."dirty" water is exactly what you want to get in fuge.

[Otty]

If you are going to hang it on the side of your tank then just hang it on the side of your sump and you won't have to look at the ugly power heads and cords in the tank.

Originally Posted by omard

Good idea..."dirty" water is exactly what you want to get in fuge.

+2

[Sushiman]

Dirty is a good word in this case . What size aquafuge are you planning on getting BTW? In my refugium experience, bigger is better. I'm personally convinced that if your refugium isn't at least third of the display volume, you're really wasting your money /time. Besides, it can be a nice excuse to set up a secondary system (seahorse, pipefish, etc) " It's for filtration honey! Honest! "