Skimmer in Refugium

[pesto]

I want to setup the refugium section of my sump with mineral mud & live rock in order to help with nitrates and detritus. Is there a problem if I run the protein skimmer in the refugium portion of my sump? If I do use the skimmer in this section, can I place cheato or will it be a problem?

 

[afboundguy]

I would just add cheato and try to use some eggcrate to kind of make a partition. Personally I wouldn't use the mineral mud as I don't think it's worth it...

FWIW I have my skimmer section crammed with cheato as I'm short on space...

 

[pesto]

You suggest live sand, some rock fragments and cheato? The cheato doesn't clog your skimmer intake?

 

[afboundguy]

I just do the cheato and I do it near the output of the skimmer and keep it away from the pump...

 

[emabie]

Only issue I see with the mud is that near the skimmer input or output you may get too much flow blowing it around.

 

[splunker]

Sump Setup

My experience with this setup -

I have a protein skimmer in my Oceanic sump for a 120G tank. To combat nitrates I placed chaeto in with the skimmer but used a piece of egg crate to isolate the ball of chaeto from the skimmer and Mag 7 pump that drives it. I put a clip on light over that area of the sump and figured done deal. Due to the space this takes up the chaeto ends up sitting below the returns for the overflows in the tank causing enough turbulance to break off small strands of the chaeto.

During a water change I accidentally pumped a little too much water into the sump system and the water level rose above the divider in the sump where the two Mag 5's return to the 120G. There are no sponge filters on these mags so I had about a half dozen small strands of chaeto to recover before they flew behind some rock and took up residence. Currently there are enough loose strands to have formed a 2' ball in the corner of the sump, on the OTHER side of the egg crate where the protein skimmer and its pump are.

To avoid this from happening yet again I purchased a 4" deep/3Gal capacity refugium to hang off the back of the the 120G tank for the chaeto as well as spawning grounds for pods. There's just enough space between the tank and the wall. I'll be installing it this coming weekend. The tank is in a finished basement and up against an outer wall. As a recommendation if I had the space I'd take a 29G and put it in-line with the rest of the system as a repository for chaeto and other algae that consumes nitrates. But until I move to another house don't have the needed space to make this plausible.

Good luck with your project.

 

[stingythingy45]

It really depends on the skimmer.
In my case I have a ASM g-2 that's a recirc mod.So,none of the water from the sump gets run through the skimmer.Only the water from the tank overflow.
So I could put chaeto in the sump but not mud.I have my DSB and chaeto,rocks all in a 20L run via a split from the overflow.This water exits the refugium ito the sump and is pumped back to the DT unfiltered.
Personally,I wouldn't try to stuff too much into a refugium/sump.You'll be just asking for problems doing that.