Refugium?

A little long, so please bear with me.

I am considering adding a refugium for one reason: lowering nitrates.

But, space is extremely limited so the only option is to build a shelving unit and place it on the wall in my garage (the garage also has my chiller and mixing vat in it).

The problem: I live in NY and the garage gets very cold in the winter.
I will run a pump in the sump to send water thru the wall and to the refugium (that will be in the garage). Refugium will fill up and then excess water will drain back down a pipe set-up and run back to the sump. I have a 50 gallon acrylic tank ready to be used for this. I guess the lighting over the refugium will help with the cold winter but, OTOH, it will give my chiller more work in the summer when the garage gets very warm.

So:
1.- Any negatives with this idea?
2.- Will a 50 gallon refugium w/caulerpa make a significant impact on my 400 gallon tank with nitrates ranging up in the 80 range (before water changes)? IOW, is the project worth the hassle?
3.- Temperature problems? The water going into the refugium will be tank water and temperature. Then, it will get cold as it returns to the sump thus adding more pressure on my heater. Any other issues I'm missing here?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Thanks.
Richard.

Guy W,

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I could throw a couple of extra heaters in the refugium (I have a few laying around).

But, do you think it will have a significant impact on lowering nitrates? That's the only reason I'm considering doing this.

Thanks again.
Richard.

Well, it's up and running. Got some chaetomorpha today (more coming tomorrow). Now, let's see what happens to the nitrates.....

Thanks again Guy. I did throw in a 300 watt heater, just in case. I'll see how the temp holds as winter approaches.