Adding water volume vs refugium

[Imbarrie]

Once you have taken care of the CC why not add the Rubbermaid container and install a light over it. Now you have the added capacity, which is a hugely beneficial, and a large fuge area, which is also hugely beneficial.

 

[masterswimmer]

Russ I think we can agree to disagree lol

We have a winner!

 

[Silverni2]

Russ I think we can agree to disagree lol
Yes your method probably works to some extent in the fact that eventually excess food can be broken down and maybe ones protein skimmer will remove it after the fact?maybe? But I bet not before algae gets a hold of the organic phosphates in the water coloum.

On the other hand why not attack the problem before it starts and remove the excess food before it can be broken down and thus releasing Phosphates(food for algae) into the water column.

I have no interest in feeding crabs,worms,pods,algae or chato only the higher up's thus removing it by siphoning it out before it gets a chance to brake down.

Back to the OP
What are you feeding ? and how much? How many fish?
If your feeding frozen do you rinse it with RO water before you feed
This will help to remove phosphates before they enter the tank as opposed to leaving them in to feed the worms and stuff.

Ps there are no more beneficial bacteria and micro life forms in your sandbed that are not already in your live rock. Where do you think they came from.

Stock list
Yellow tang
Yellow eyed kole tang
Clown tang
All tangs approximately 3-3 1/2" long
2 clowns
1 small Niger trigger 2 1/2"
1 green chromis
1 green sea serpent - huge
Nac7 skimmer
120g sps/ lps
I feed 5 seaweed sheets a week
And 3 brine shrimp cubes every 3rd day I use ro/di water for water changes
I melt the brine shrimp cubes in an inch of tap water before feeding
( could it make that big of a deal?)

 

[masterswimmer]

Approximately 9 cubes of BS per week! Based on your fish list (and sizes) that seems extraordinarily excessive.

FYI, I would mix up the variety of food. There's much better food on the market than BS. If you want to give them one cube of BS per week to mix it up that's fine, but you could be substituting some quality blended frozen foods. Check out Rods Frozen & Roggers Frozen Foods.

Russ

 

[MikeC]

( could it make that big of a deal?)

Well it can't help let's put it that way
Nori is a seaweed and seaweeds are used in refugia to export phosphates

Thinking along the lines of buying expensive RO/DI units to remove phosphates from topoff water and then turning around and adding a whole lot more every time you feed.

It's the inorganic (orthophosphates) that's added as a preservative that you're trying to get out. They are highly reactive to RO/DI, so you don't need to soak, just rinse and go will remove most of it.

 

[Silverni2]

Approximately 9 cubes of BS per week! Based on your fish list (and sizes) that seems extraordinarily excessive.

FYI, I would mix up the variety of food. There's much better food on the market than BS. If you want to give them one cube of BS per week to mix it up that's fine, but you could be substituting some quality blended frozen foods. Check out Rods Frozen & Roggers Frozen Foods.

Russ

Gotcha
Thanks Russ
I didn't realize that it was to much food, hopefully now that I will be feeding much less food my water quality will improve! I will check into better quality foods. How do you feel about romaine lettuce? I know there's not much dietary value but at least the fish will have something to chew on!

 

[masterswimmer]

Bruce, the last time I saw romaine lettuce growing on a reef was the last time I fed it to my fish. The nori sheets are perfect for your tangs to 'chew'.

Brine shrimp are one of the least nutritious foods we use in the hobby. Encapsulated, enriched baby brine shrimp are the closest to healthy in the brine shrimp category, so make sure you're at least using that form of it.

Russ

 

[Silverni2]

I'd get rid of the crushed coral completely. Unfortunately there are a lot of very beneficial sand sifting critters you cannot keep due to the CC. Slowly over the course of a few weeks siphon or scoop out the CC. After it's removed, slowly add a nice fine (not oolitic) sand. After that, leave it alone. No more siphoning the sandbed.

IMO, because of the CC being a detritus trap, you're forced to siphon out the nasties. In turn you're also siphoning out the beneficial bacteria and micro life forms that help to process your tanks waste.

Just my $.10 minus $.08

Russ

Hey Russ I'm finally ready to add the fine sand, how deep should I make the new fine sand bed?
Thx
Bruce

 

[vio]

I have a 120 mixed reef and I'm debating which to add a 45 -90 gal Rubbermaid container for more water volume or a 30 gallon refugium with deep sand bed, liverock and chaeto?
Any idea which would be more beneficial to my tank?
Thx

By add 45-90 gal. u will end up w/ more water change, same Nitrate, same PO4 #.Add crushed coral on Main Tank ( bad ) more bad stuff go in, much easy than sand, in special when u got Tangs ( they poo a lot) DSB + Crushed coral become detritus factory soon, to dose any Carbon (Vodka,Vinegar,Biopellets etc.) i dont think is good idea (when u got DSB,please google). It all about BACTERIA, u have for sure, but Not enough # for u live stock. Now , you got two choices, renew the DSB (not sure how, i never like it) or go BB (no sand) and dose Vodka,Vinegar, save a lot of space compare Rubbermaid container. lol and Works. Ups.. Nice Tank .Vio

 

[masterswimmer]

Hey Russ I'm finally ready to add the fine sand, how deep should I make the new fine sand bed?
Thx
Bruce

Hey Bruce, I'm a fan of a shallow sandbed. Just enough to keep sand sifting critters as well as gobies and wrasses happy. 2"-2.5" should work fine.

Russ

 

[reefer4eva]

A deep sandbed can be benificial if properly maintained,I learned the hard way along time ago about crushed coral and ever since I always used sand..bare bottom has its advantages and disadvantages also.(1)easy maintenance (2)no where for anything to settle due to high flow and smooth bottom.only disadvantage is bacteria population will only be on the live rock

 

[Waleedwale1]

I'd get rid of the crushed coral completely. Unfortunately there are a lot of very beneficial sand sifting critters you cannot keep due to the CC. Slowly over the course of a few weeks siphon or scoop out the CC. After it's removed, slowly add a nice fine (not oolitic) sand. After that, leave it alone. No more siphoning the sandbed.

IMO, because of the CC being a detritus trap, you're forced to siphon out the nasties. In turn you're also siphoning out the beneficial bacteria and micro life forms that help to process your tanks waste.

Just my $.10 minus $.08

Russ

I'm curious, why shouldn't the sand be oolitic? I think that the one I bought is oolitic

 

[masterswimmer]

I'm curious, why shouldn't the sand be oolitic? I think that the one I bought is oolitic

Oolitic sand is just a very very fine grain. This lends itself to sandstorms from powerheads and sand sifters like gobies making a mess. A little larger grain size makes it more stable.

Russ