In my 44 gallon tank I am having serious heating issues. during the day the temperature spikes to 83-84 with it dropping down to 79-80 at night. the tank has only been set up for 4 weeks now. I have some hermit crabs and snails in there. I decided it needed a
sump to help regulate the temp. So I designed and built a
sump/refugium this weekend for heat dissapation. it holds about 15 gallons, 10 in the
fuge and 2.5g in each the
skimmer section and return section. I figure since am putting in the
sump I might as well take full advangtage of it and used the extra capacity for nitrogen seqstration, chemical stabilization, ect all that good stuff. I am going to put some sand and
LR in the
fuge along with some
macro algae.
so I have two questions:
1) flow rate in the
fuge. I have a rio 2100 for the return pump and at a 5 foot head it puts out about 250gph. don't want to go too much higher than that cause I want the return section keep enough water in it as it only holds 3 gallons. the overflow box is going to drain half in to the
skimmer section and half into the
fuge. so that is about 125 gallons per hour, I might have to adjust a bit to make sure that I dont overflow the bubble trap in the
skimmer section. so we are talking in the range of 100-200 gallons per hour through the
fuge.
1a) acceptable flow rate through the
fuge?
1b) show I add something like a maxi-jet 400 or 600 to it just to move the water through the
LR?
2) Lighting for the
fuge. As I just spent a small fortune on the fixture for the tank (main souce of the heating issue as well). I am looking for something small powerfull and will fit in the stand and not light anything on fire. I know from the
FW planted tanks I have had in the past more light is better.
2a) are two 6,500k 18w
t5s good
2b) should I go more or less? I also have a t6 fixture I can put on there as well. wasn't sure the
par out of it would be worth adding it as well.
Sally
http://homepage.mac.com/stripepike
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