Smart way to add flow to a refugium?

[Erasmus Crowley]

I've been using a powerhead in my sump to get my chaeto ball spinning, but it's not ideal. I'm hoping to start a conversation about how to mitigate the issues that I've had.

There are a handful of annoying problems. First, the high light levels in the refugium cause nuisance algae growth on the impeller and cover that dramatically drops the flow rate fairly quickly. Second, the chaeto itself gets pulled into the powerhead and it gets stuck in there, which stops the ball from spinning. Third (and least importantly), it seems like all the powerheads on the market are black and they tend to take up a relatively large amount of space in a small fuge where the black color absorbs light that should be getting utilized by the chaeto.

It just seems like a poor solution which requires more attention than I really want to put into my sump. I routinely see people say that chaeto likes flow, and I hardly ever see any discussion about how best to add that flow.

I'm thinking that I might just add a 2nd return pump to move water from the return section of my sump back into the refugium and use that to spin the chaeto, which would solve most of these issues, maybe. This seems like overkill though, and I'm not sure if I even have room for a 2nd pump in the return section.

I'd love to hear what other people have done. What equipment are you using to add flow to a fuge? Is it positioned high, or low in the tank? Did you modify it somehow to mitigate these problems? Etc.

Thanks guys!

 

[MarshallB]

I added egg crate before the first baffle going from the fuge to the skimmer. I have a powerhead inbetween it. This keeps any algae from getting suck into the powerhead. I also have placed a piece of cardboard on my fuge light to block any light from going beyond the egg crate. This keeps all my algae growth in the fuge. I was having green hair algae grow in the skimmer area as well as algae growing in the skimmer itself.

The flow doesn't spin my cheato though. I'm only able to get a good spin if I remove my filter socks. I may do that in the future once my tank is rock solid and stable.