Refugium/sump combo or above tank refugium?

[noble]

I am setting up a new sump, and am debating between dividing up a 30Long (or 55 if I can find the room) into a refugium/sump, or keeping the 30L as just a sump and setting up a separate above tank refugium (which will be a reall pain in the arse).

So my question is. . . Is it really worth it to create a separate refugium? I've heard so much about the return pump on a fuge/sump combo destroying most of the pods?
I'm starting from scratch with the sump, so I can go either way, though it seems easier to combine the fuge/sump. thanks.

 

[Hitsnorth]

I have a 40 gallon sump. I have a piece of acrylic that I seperated part of the tank off and put macroalgae into it. I have the overflow from my 30 gallon feeding into this refugium and it just spills out into the sump. I have another section of the sump with all the return pumps/skimmer/heaters/etc/etc. And the rest is a sandbed with one VERY large mean hermit crab(size of a softball) roaming around.

 

[House of Laughter]

Noble,

With your setup you might want to consider increasing your water volume with a 30g sump and using a hangon refigium for the back - this months Aquarium magazine has a great article on emulating the natural diversity of the ocean and the success of a reef tank - highly recommend reading that.

I use a 30 acrylic as a sump and have a small specimen cup inside it with a 65w DIY kit from home depot - I have sold 3 bags of chaeto on RC since I set this up, so it is working. This is not my ideal setup (no room under corner stand) but works for now and have tons of pods.

If you can squeeze the 55, then that would be awesome - the more water column the better (and FYI, the estimated balance of natural ocean reefs is 30g to one gallon of tank water, - so if you wanted to make it like the real ocean, you would have to have a 2100g refuge - yikes)

House