Do I need a refuguim?

I just set up a 55 gal reef tank that's currently being filtered by 2 HOB filters. I will be switching to a sump at some point down the road. In doing my research on sumps and refuguims it seem that for a refuguim to be effective it needs to be really big. The owner of my local FS said to have a barely large enough refuguim for my tank I would need a sump of at least 50 gals and bigger would be better. What do you guys think?

 

I have a 35g sump on my 55g tank. Now with that said, I have thought about buying another 55g and making that my sump but just for more water volume and space. I don't think it is necessary. So in short, i think any sump is better than no sump.

 

mdbostwick, I think you might have misunderstood my question. I am going to do a sump, but what I might do is skip the refuguim.

 

Do you need one, no. Do I recommend one, yes.

 

Yup. If you can have one, why not? I can't really think of any disadvantages to having a refugium. I'll never do a sump without a refugium.

 

I have a 40 gal sump for my equipment and gonna run a 10 gal strictly for a refugium

 

I ran a 55g reef with no sump or refugium. It was a well run tank with no issues. I only ran carbon in my hob filter and the filter was cleaned monthly.

If I had had the option I would have had sump and refugium only because its more water volume, everything can be in the sump instead of in the DT, and it provides more options and ease to run the system.

 

It's gonna be personal preference on this one. I'd rather have the space for a big skimmer, I've never ran a refugium.

 

Yes your LFS dude is right, to do a refugium right it needs to be a least half the volume of you main tank. But if you do not have the room then a small one is better than no refugium at all. IMHO Check out http://marineplantbook.com/

 

I really want a fuge bigger than the DT. And I want it away on a different location from the DT. I want to hide all the stuff away from the DT.....