Refugium Help

[meschaefer]

I am planning on doing some work on my tank this weekend, and it would be a good time to redo my refugium. On my 65 gallon display tank, I have a twenty gallon sump, with an approximately five gallon refugium (18 x 7 x 9).

The original plan for the refugium was to grow cheato, but I have been using it basicly as storage. Right know it is holding rock I removed from my display (to make more room for frags ), as well as some misbehaven hermit crabs.

I would like the refugium to:

1. be a refugium in the truest sense of the word ,a safe place from predation for pods, microstars, bristle worms etc. etc
2. help stabalize Ph swing and
3. reduce nitrates.
(in that order)

Right now it is not doing much of anthing except wasting space.What would you do?

I am thinking I want to remove the rock and break some of it down into rubble (I am talking golf ball sizes). I know that it will trap detrius, but I figure that this is just a food source for a thriving invert micro fauna population. There was a thread over on RC about maintiaing a display with rubble, and I gave it serious consideration when i re-did my tank last year.

On top of that i want to grow a thick mass of cheato. I have water running very slowly though it pehaps 25 gallons per hour.

The other option is to remove it completely.

 

[House of Laughter]

Matt,

There are many options available to you, but what's needed (for me at least) is to know where you plan to locate it? and what are your space contraints, if any.

I personally found that my remote DSB refuge that gravity feeds into my tank was an awesome way to go about it. I fed it with water from teh sump at about 100gph and put a powerhead in there for additional internal circulation.

I firmly believe this can also be accomplished under the stand and not in the sump, but above the sump. Yes pods will get shredded on thier way up into the display, but you'll find, funny enough that some will make it to our display and grow their as well.

If you have the opportunity to custom make an acrylic fuge to accomplish what I noted above and to maximize the space.

Not sure if that helps, perhaps a picture of where you want to house it would be a good start - I could then make a more accurate recommendation.

House

 

[meschaefer]

I built a custom sump about six months ago. The fuge part is 18 x 7 x 9, wich works out to about five gallons or so.

I can't feed it off of my overflow as I am plumbing that into my skimmer this weekend. The original plan called for the refugium to be fed off of the overflow as well, but the plumbing just don't fit. Right now water is pumped into the fuge with a small pump. Water from the fuge overflows into the return section of my sump.

Here is a picture, you can see the rock in the refugium. Part of this weekends work it to make it neater in there. Redo some of the electric and plumbing. The small tank to the right is a freshwater resivor for ATO. To the left is the return section of my sump, and to the far left is the space for my skimmer. Remeber that the length of the tank is only three foot.

 

[House of Laughter]

Matt,

Any chance you can construct a smaller box on top right noted in teh picture here? and pump and gravity feed it back?? You could use some more sand (remote DSB) and let the chaeto roll.

You could use that center compartment for rubble as biological filteration.

LMK what you think.

House

 

[meschaefer]

Matt,

Any chance you can construct a smaller box on top right noted in teh picture here? and pump and gravity feed it back??

You could use that center compartment for rubble as biological filteration.

LMK what you think.

House

Right now the refugium does gravity feed back into the sump. If you look real close you will see that the water levels are different in the fuge and the return section of the sump

 

[scarf_ace1981]

you need to give that sump to me:biggrin:

i have another acrylic box you could make another sump w/.

just food for thought.

all jokes aside, i think you can use the fuge you have now. if you have no use for the rock just sell it or trade for rubble.

 

[meschaefer]

I am sure that I can use the fuge that I have know. It's not an issue of equipment, but rather technique.

I could do a couple of things..

I could completely remove the rock and go bare bottom in the fuge. In that case, I would have only the cheato to serve as a "home" for the various micro fauna.

I could reduce the rock to rubble, as I suggested above. I would have a rubble zone of about 2-3 inches with plenty of room for the cheato above it. I could trade it for rubble, but it just be easier to take a hammer to what I already have. The one thing that I have very little of is time.

I could go wih a DSB, wich I don't think is necessary. I have a DSB in the display and I don't think it would do anything for me.

I could go cryptic.

In each of the these situations I have a choice of going high flow or low flow through the fuge.

Ultimately my primary concern is overall water quality for my SPS.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

i would leave the fuge BB w/ medium sized rocks and cheato.

i just removed like 2-3" of rubble form my sump and the detrious that came up was unbelievable. i decided to leave only the large branch rock pieces in there.

 

[meschaefer]

What size rubble did you have?

I would think that in a refugium section, where you are attempting to provide a haven for amphipods and copepods and the like, that the detrius would act as an important food source.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

yes but i don't think i had enough flow in that chamber. i think it was creating more problems than anyhting. my cheato is covered in pods.

detrious is good but too much of anything isn't