Refugium

[Blue]

Hi all well im starting a 56 gallon tank its going in the wall and where its going i have a space under it thats only 24lx24dx16h so i know i dont have room for a skimmer so i was thinking of doing a refugium i was going to use a 20 long. The thing is i dont really know what im doing from what ive found i basically fill the thing with water sand some rock and macro algeas. Is this right my other question is do i fill the 20 lng all the way up half way or what? Do i need to atach another tank like a ten gallon or so to it incase of power outages so i have enough room for water when the pump stop or what some one please help me out on this i do have a prism skimmer thats just laying around will it work on this tank? i could add with the refugium or if any of you know of a skimmer that is short enough or of some one who could build me one let me know. i need all the ideas and help i can get.
Thanks,
Blue

[Chuck S]

I would use the 20 as the sump and the ten as the refugium personally. The problem being is the refugium needs slow flow. The 20 long can be filled up half way and work as the sump. If you have checkvalves installed right above your output then water can not drain back into your sump. You need a good one though not a cheapy one. The only water draining back into the sump will be the water that is overtop of the overflow line. This will be on the inlet end.
I would drill the ten gallon tank an inch above the top so that it can gravity feed back into the sump. You can buy a cheap rubbermaid container as well to drill if your can't drill the 10 gallon. You use a small pump to pump water over there. You then place Macro Algae attached to some rubble rock on the sand bed. You will need to seed this area with a detrivore kit. This will drain into the sump from the drain pip you made earlier. I will try and draw up a picture and post it to make it clear.

[oldron]

Hi Blue, Fuges are one of my passions,my exp has taught me to allow a passive flow back into the main tank, reason being that a return pump in a fuge or sump will damage the micro animals from the fuge, if you use the 20 as a sump then you would adjust your outflow on the main tank so that the syphon breaks on a overflo or if you are pumping it out
[ not a good idea] then you would want a float switch to shut off the pump. a 10 gal fuge would be a good size, I use a small air driven skimmer only if something goes awry.
in a well functioning fuge a skimmer is counter productive.
as per Chucks inst about stocking, I sell fuge seeding cultures complete,shipping inc.
from my hobby tanks, email me if you are interested.
rknochel@5starinternet.com [4" sand would be great]