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Is there a difference between a sump and a refugium? If there is where on the Internet can I find more information about the two?

mathfish

as far as i know mate, a refugium is where people put live rocks in SW tanks to help condition the water and where small animals live and breed without the threat of the fish in the main tank eating them. i want to set up one for my malawi tank and breed shrimp then i have an ongoing food supply. i read an artical saying, if you set it up right the small animals will get sucked right into the main tank via the outlet of the refugium...
good luck

Refugium is as stated above, to create new life and a safe haven for those. And having live plants in there to help nitrification. A sump is basically just were you put your skimmer, heater, and stuff like that, usually split into two sections, one refugium, one sump.

Sumps generally tend to have lots of equipment like heaters and maybe a skimmer of filter or whatnot. They're generally used to increase water volume and hide things.

Refugiums are more filled with "life" such as macroalgae and microalgae, maybe a sand bed for NNR, maybe some live rock, maybe even a nuisance fish or too. They're usually used as a place for vegetable filtration. Sumps should be on either 24/7 or on a reverse photoperiod schedule.

HTH...try [link=http://www.reefcentral.com]http://www.reefcentral.com" style="COLOR: #3c4e82[/link] for more info.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Thanks for the info everybody. I guess I have some reading to do.

Thanks again
mathfish

Speaking of putting heaters in the sump, can most heaters be totally submerged? Mine is a hang on the back heater that I'd like to put in the sump to hide. Think this would be okay? Thanks folks in advance.

only if you're sump has i high water level. i would just buy a submersible. they are usually higher quality too.