Skimmer or Refugium for frag tank?

[rongy]

Hi reefers, I’m using my old Red Sea reefer170 as my first frag system. It will be a bare bottom system with racks, maybe some rock under the rack. I do plan to keep 3-4 utility fishes and some invertebrates. The sump is rather small. Wondering if I should run skimmer or use the skimmer chamber as refugium.

Thanks for any input!

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

A small skimmer should work fine.

I ran an old skimmer from my big tank on my 150 gallon frag and feel I pulled too much out.

For the smaller frag tank I started using for my "frag QT" tank later, I just used a smaller skimmer and had much better results.

 

[rongy]

A small skimmer should work fine.

I ran an old skimmer from my big tank on my 150 gallon frag and feel I pulled too much out.

For the smaller frag tank I started using for my "frag QT" tank later, I just used a smaller skimmer and had much better results.

I have a spare skimmer but it’s rather big for that tank. Not sure if that will deplete the system

 

[msloan21]

I’d run a skimmer at first then if nitrates/phosphates get too high I’d add Chaeto/refuge