combining a sump skimmer and refugium

[finleyz]

I've got a refugium setup and I'm considering adding a skimmer, but I'm running into an issue. If I put the skimmer in the refugium, it's likely to suck in the chaeto. Has anyone else dealt with this problem? How did you manage to keep the chaeto out of the skimmer? I'm not keen on using a HOB skimmer, but I'm not sure if I have any other options.

[brunobear]

Not based on personal experience, but from what I've observed, most sumps with a refugium are compartmentalized. So, the water flow goes in, hits the skimmer first, then passes through dividers that remove bubbles, followed by the refugium, more dividers, and finally the return pump that sends the water back to the tank.

Imagine it like this:

|_Skimmer_|||__Fuge___|||_return Pump__

The dividers are staggered, so if you look at it from the side, with | as the divider and w as the water flow, it'd resemble this:

| www|
| w| w|
ww| www

[fleeton]

I had a similar setup going on... Ran my skimmer in the refugium, just threw a foam pad on the inlet of the skimmer supply pump. Had to do some extra tweaking on the skimmer, but it got the job done.