where to put the 'fuge.....

[Farrmanchu]

There's lots of opinions about Sump turnover, when I added my Frag Tank, I tee'd the return line, greatly reducing my sump turnover. My Skimmer has more time to work the water, and the Cheato and Mangroves have a longer exposure time. Originally the turnover was around 450GPH, now more like 300GPH. I don't think I would lower it any more. I use a SEIO 850 in the display, so I still have adequate Tank turnover.

I used to think that the return pump was bad for pods, but now I'm not so sure, I've had two small Rics, and a small Yuma sucked into my return and fired out into the display. All survived, unmarked.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I have my above tank fuge so that it gravity feeds back into the tank. Its full of pods & such which get released into the main display tank without going through a pump/impeller. Works for me

[honkey sauce]

ive had small clown gobies go down and up my system over and over again i think they like it

[Fish]

I'll try to dig up the link where I read it, but someone actually did a study and caught all their return water in a micron sock and then examined all the pods. Their findings were that the pod-vs-impellor mortality rate was very very low. It was something like only 5% of pods are killed by going through the impellor.
I don't know where the idea that a refugium should be low-flow came from, but I personally don't see the benefit. My 20gal display had 40x turnover and it was crawling with pods. If you have pods that are being blown away, then you might have a velocity problem, not a turnover problem. Infact, have you ever tried to purposefully blast a pod into the water column? You have to sneak up on it with a powerhead to do it.
You may have to change the name to "sump-with-liverock-chaeto-and-pods" instead of a "refugium" to make people more comfortable, but as far as I know, it will be healthier with a higher turnover than it will with a lower one - just like your display. In fact, my 20gal display had a 40x turnover because of the sump return and a closed loop - but my sump only had the return pump driving it so it's turnover rate was half that... so what did I do? I added a small powerhead to the sump. The LR and chaeto didn't "know" it was in a refugium - so it still benefited from better water movement just like it would have in the main tank. ( :
Haha I guess an extreme example is my cannister filter mod that turned a 1.6gal eheim 2028 with an output of 250gph into a "refuguim". I added lights, LR, and cheato to the inside of the filter and it became a breeding ground for pods - despite having a volume turnover rate of approx 156x!!!
- Chad

[hqgc]

Thanx for all the input!
I think I will go with the "floating fuge " idea. This will allow me to slow down the water flow in the 'fuge a bit and stop sand from going in the pumps.
Also excuse my ignorance , but please define chaeto.
Thank you

[Fish]

Sorry, just short for chaetomorpha - a great macro algae for nutrient export.