Refugeium baffle spacing?

[Cash]

I will be picking up my glass today to make my fuge out of a 29g glass tank. My question is how much space should I have in my intake section to accommodate a skimmer in the near future? I want to make the fuge part as large as possible I am working with 30" on this tank. Also how much for the return section? My current return pump is only about 4' wide. I have seen some skimmers needing about 8"x10" area. I was thinking about making the intake section about 8.5" and about 6" for the return. What do you guys think?
Oh yeah the tank is 30"x12"
Thanks

[ReeferRob]

Cash
From my experiences with this make sure to make the skimmer section very large to allow for upgrades if needed. I made mine small as **** and now I can't upgrade my POS skimmer and am now forced to MOD it to make it work better or more drastic measures will be required. Drilling side of stand and fug and running and external skimmer to the side or in the basement.
So look around at what skimmer you think you want to run, then up size it cause you'll want to eventually, and make the chamber large enough to accomodate it.
For return section, look at Lifeguard Quiet One Pumps. They rock are energy efficient and are fairly quiet. Hence the name. Im running the QO4000 on my tank and that chamber was made with maybe a 1/4 on either side to. This will never need to be upgraded so it was made as small as possible to allow room for other stuff in the fug/sump. Just make sure to leave a little room so you don't get vibrations from the return pump bouncing off the walls.
Hope this helps, I ramble!

[jojo22]

I would find the foot print for the skimmer you are getting and leave that plus 1 inch and for the return 6 inches should be good. but it would also depend on the GPH of the return pump as too much turn over in too small of a space will cause micro bubbles in the tank.

[Cash]

Thanks for the input
Definitely helpful

[Tankster]

I'm using a QuietOne 6000 as my return & have it plumbed externally. I still need a decent size last section in my sump though so I don't run it dry.

[Cash]

That was my next concern. I don't want to run dry in the return section.
Also I know with most anything you get what you pay for but are any of the cheaper skimmers out there (less than $100) even worth using until I can get a nicer one. Very tight budget right now. It probably wont be until after Christmas until I could afford a nicer one

[jojo22]

bought a sea clown and with some mods it worked fairly well. But it was only on a system with about 16 gallons of total water volume.

[jimsflies]

I agree that you want to look at the range of skimmer sizes that you may want in the future. I have changed skimmers 3 or 4 times (I have come to believe they are all POS's...but that's another story).

I eventually had to do some major modding of my sump to make them fit. My sump is made of acrylic and I spent a day standing on my head inside of my stand cutting and dremel-ing to remove one of the baffles entirely. Nothing like the fumes of melting acrylic in a enclosed environment!

What I have learned regarding refugiums...try to design it so there is a fair amount of flow (this may mean smaller so it is compatible with your throughput in your sump). Ideally, I think a refugium should be shallow...realizing that this configuration doesn't typically work with how we normally configure our sumps. My reasoning for a shallow fuge is that macro algae likes light and water flow (Q=VA...shallow will increase the water velocity). Also I have found a deep slow refugium to be a detritus trap and at best the macro algae uptake may equal the amount of detritus decomposition in that area.

[ReeferRob]

That was my next concern. I don't want to run dry in the return section.
Also I know with most anything you get what you pay for but are any of the cheaper skimmers out there (less than $100) even worth using until I can get a nicer one. Very tight budget right now. It probably wont be until after Christmas until I could afford a nicer one

The ASM MINI-G for $119 at AquaCave.com is the best skimmer in that range. I have some left over mesh to mod the impeller and that thing will crank. Whats the water volume again? I guess I should have asked that before.

Jim is right velocity through the fug is important to get a little movement out of the chaeto so it grows properly. But its a tough balance because if your turning over the water too quick and don't have a long enough dwell time or exposure time for the water and the chaeto, it will be pointless. The reason we grow chaeto in our fuges is to harbor little pods, but more important, I guess of equal importance is nutrient export.

[schminksbro]

I too would decide on a skimmer prior to building your sump. Here is a pic of the cup on my ASM. It is a G3 which is bigger than a MiniG but I am running it on around 130 gallons. The skim in this cup was produced overnight.