Heater question

Jason R

Jason R

New member
I am not sure if I asked this before so forgive me if I did. I have a 500W titanium heater and I was thinking of putting it in my refugium but I am not sure if it could actually heat the display tank from there. With how quickly the water moves through the refugium I wouldn't think the water was in there long enough to heat up.

I know with my old setup that putting heaters in the refugium never seemed to do anything for the display tank. My display tank was on the first floor and my refugium was in the basement though so maybe the distance made it impossible to heat the display tank from the sump.

My new setup has the refugium in the stand right under the display tank. As such the water only travels 4 feet at most. Would a heater be able to work in a refugium in this setup?
 
That's where I have mine and I never had problems with keeping the temp at where I want it. Hope that helps. 90 display with 25 sump.
 
Are you putting this in sump or fuge or is it a sump fuge combo water normally travela slow thru a fuge ethier way i wouldnt see it being a problem my set up now has three tanks in total and two 200 heaters do a great job
 
If your water is moving that quickly through your sump that you are worried about the heater not being effective......it is moving way to fast to keep a good vibe going in your fuge!!! You want your water to just trickle through your fuge and skimmer area. The longer the water has to spend in there, the better overall reef quality you will have in your tank. Your in tank flow should be coming from powerheads, Koralia's, Tunze's, or Vortech's in your tank, not your return pump. The longer your tank water can spend in your sump, the more natural growth you will get in your sump to make it effective.
 
jpski25 said:
If your water is moving that quickly through your sump that you are worried about the heater not being effective......it is moving way to fast to keep a good vibe going in your fuge!!! You want your water to just trickle through your fuge and skimmer area. The longer the water has to spend in there, the better overall reef quality you will have in your tank. Your in tank flow should be coming from powerheads, Koralia's, Tunze's, or Vortech's in your tank, not your return pump. The longer your tank water can spend in your sump, the more natural growth you will get in your sump to make it effective.
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That is exactly what I needed to know. I was under the wrong assumption that you needed to get a lot of flow from your return pump.

I am using a refugium.
 
Recently I got a little info from some skimmer manufacturers that seems to say your sump flow should equal about double the air draw of your skimmer. So assume your skimmer draws 800lph of air, an optimal water flow rate would be 1600lph at the return nozzle to your display tank. You would need to calculate headloss to choose an appropriate return pump, as one that can pump 1600lph at zero feet will pump quite a bit less at say 5-7 feet of calculated head. To figure how much head your system has, add the vertical distance from floor to return nozzle, and add a foot for every 2 90 degree bends, and 3 45 degree bends on the way up.
 
In the event that you can't get a pump with the exact flow you need is it better to err on the side of less flow or more flow?

I need about 400GPH for my return but with according to the head loss a Mag 5 would do 376 GPH while a Mag 7 would do 508 GPH. I have a Mag 7. I am not sure if that is useable or if I absolutely have to downsize to a Mag 5.
 
The mag7 is fine. It's not an exact science, the little extra flow won't harm anything and it saves you money on buying another pump. It's not like you have a mag12, that would be overkill.
 
FishBeard said:
The mag7 is fine. It's not an exact science, the little extra flow won't harm anything and it saves you money on buying another pump. It's not like you have a mag12, that would be overkill.
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What about the refugium though? Is 508 GPH too fast for a refugium?
 
Should be alright, not ALL the water is flowing thru the fuge at that full 8-10 gallons per minute rate, there is some retention time in the chamber when water goes in before it goes back out. 500gph is not nearly as much flow as it sounds like at first. If in doubt you could use a different sump with a separate dedicated fuge chamber fed from the overflow with a valve so you can adjust the flow to it, then you wouldn't have that entire 500gph running straight thru if your concerned.
 
You are correct, much of the water will swirl thru the chamber increasing contact time while some will just flow straight thru to the return section. You'll be fine.
 
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