Refugium to Tank Ratio

[theshad]

Just wanted to see what type of ratio people have between their tank size and the refugium they have on it.

Who has the largest? who has the smallest? is their an average size out there?

Since the use of a refugium seems to be a hot topic and in an effort to produce a more naturally fed tank Reef Crew will be conducting an experiment of sorts.

We are having a refugium made that should be about 50- 55Gal in size and we will be adding this to our 45Gal (35Gal actual water volume) tank. This will provide us about a 1:1.5 ratio of tank to refugium.

We want to see how much live food we can produce in the refugium, while providing a large amount of food to the tank.

How much can Corals and fish eat? maybe this will bring us one step closer to being better able to answer this question.

Let us know what your ratio is and what you think of our experiment.

[Cellenzweig]

My tank to fuge ratio is about 3:1 (Tank:fuge). Tank is 10g and the fuge if 5.5, about 2/3 full.

Edit - Above tank

[savage2830]

my tank is 110 and fuge is a 65

[ajx22]

240Gal Tank

40Gal "Above-Tank" Fuge

[theshad]

AJ you make a good point in your post. that you have your Refugium above yout main tank. This is the same fasion that ours will be installed.

Water pumped up from the main tank to the refugium to allow a spill over into the main tank.

[Lyu]

Hi Brian the experiment sounds great, but how do you plan to measure consumption and production? I believe you'll find the bigger the fuge the better the results but it would be really cool to prove or disprove that.
My ratio personally is 55gal main and 30gal fuge. But it's a sump/fuge so I get less life into the tank than a gravity fed system. But one does what one can. :)

[TJ_Burton]

1:1 ratio on my nano (20g + 20g Fuge)
1:13 ratio on my 65g (65g has a 5g fuge)

TANK:FUGE

[awcrimety]

my 50 gallon has a hang on fuge that's apprx 3 gallons. =)

[psiico]

I don't have a fuge but I read an article about a tank online that was 125 gallons and his fuge was 300 gallons. It was mostly an algae scrubber though by the sounds of it, he had carpets of different algae in there I seem to remember.