How big does a refugium have to be?

After making my new refugium really have to be? Lets say for a 75gal? 1gal?

 

A refugium can be any size as their isn't any best size, the same holds true to a sump as well IMO! Both offer you the ability to increase surface area and water volume! A refugium will offer you the flexibility to house many different organisms that are beneficial to your main tank and also offer you and your smaller, more delicate livestock a safe haven, so to speak, away from predators and larger things in your tank!

 

If your wanting to use a refuge for macro algae to help with nitrates and nutrient removal then you will want a large refugium to house as much macro algae as possible. For a 75g tank I would do a 20-30g long IMO. I use a 30g for my 120g and its still not as large as I would like it.

 

I am using my five gallon bucket with for my refuge right now. I am going to be building a new stand(hopefully) so I can throw in my 40gal breeder in their. Its going to be about 2/3 fung.

 

About 10% of the tanks total volume then run 10% of the fuge volume through the fuge a hr. The grass is supplied nutrients by the bio load and it takes more fertilizer to grow 100 acre's of lawn then it does one acer. Size does matter.. Thats why the grass is always greener over the septic tank.

 

I recently incorporated my 75gallon tank as a refugium to my 125gallon reef tank! Two powerheads are used to bring water from the main tank to my 75 and the other powerhead to bring the water from the 75 back to the 125, which is connected to a 20gallon sump and a smaller refugium!
Now I just need to stock it with some unusual and beneficial tank inhabitants that are diverse and from the tidewater and lagoon biotopes of our reefs!
This will incluse such livestock as Urchins, Stars, Crabs, Gorgonians, Gobies, Blennies and Royal Gramma's mainly. Some live rock, live sand and Macroalgae will also be part of my interesting addition!

 

I have a 29 gallon refugium on my 65 gallon tank, that would be good for a 75 too

 

I have 120 gal reef and I recently upgraded my fuge system... I have a 40 gal sump ( skimmer, reactor and micron bag), a 40 gal fuge (rock, macro, an urchin and brittle star) and a 20 gal true fuge (mostly Xenia and a Mandarin)

over kill??? dunno but my water has never been so stable!


I have pics on my Home page

 

Not a good idea to have power heads working against one another. On the fudge I'd drill it or at least add a HOB overflow box. Safer then worrying about power heads stopping or not restarting or plugging up .. I'd let gravity suck it back to the main sump myself.

 

ok, this may sound like a really stupid question, but could i use an old powerfilter(stripped of course) as a fuge? i know its too small, but i'm basically looking for somewhere to let stuff like pods grow until i get enough numbers to be self-sustaining in the main aquarium... i'm looking at IPSF's stuff, and for their amphipod breeding kit, they recommend a 10 gallon tank with low lighting, etc... the way i'm thinking, is putting the amphipods in the filter, and reproduce in there, and every once in a while, some will escape into the main tank, and start reproducing in there as well... IPSF says they give you 25 specimens, but depending on what you have in the tank, 25 could be wiped out in no time! also, if i put a handful of livesand, and a snail or two, would this be beneficial? i know they say to put livesand, liverock rubble, algae, snails, bristleworms, etc. etc. in the refugium, basically anything but fish!.. and that's basically what i want, but just on a smaller scale i don't want a full blown refugium hanging on the back because i'd have to empty the tank and move it out away from the wall, plus if my plan DOES work, then why would i need to make a big purchase like that?