Refugium and protein skimmer questions.

[cdwyer38]

Help! Just starting a new reef tank, ( 90 gallon aga, amiracle refugium sump and 140 lbs. of live rock) and pretty new to reef keeping. I'm hearing conflicting views from the experts at fish store #1 and fish store #2. Fish store #1 says that I should put just a few pieces of live rock on the sand bed and just run the lights on the sump for aprox. 14 hours a day on an opposite schedule of the aquarium lights. fish store #2 says that I should plant calerpa and run the lights in the sump 24 hours a day, which is also what the directions and most things that I have heard say to do.
Fish store #1 also reccomends running a protein skimmer on my ecosystem while fish store #2 advises against it.
Can somebody explain why I'm getting conflicting views on these two subjects, what are the advantages of each, and what your personal experience and advice is.

Thanks-Clark

 

[ChaoticReefer]

Heh, the fact of life in this hobby, every one has different opinions and they can all be right.

As for refugium lighting, studies have shown that macroalgae gets best results when having 16/8 lighting period (16 hrs on, 8 hrs off). Reversed lighting period is good for your pH swing cycle by keeping it to a mininum. This is done during dark periods when algae suck up oxygen and releases CO2. The CO2 makes your pH drop. So by having a light on for algae (either in your tank or in your refugium) makes the algae use up CO2 and release oxygen.

I haven't tried ecosystem yet. But I think your best option is to wait and see. If the mud doesn't seem to be keeping up, then add the skimmer.

I see you are a pretty new member to our community, so let me welcome you to our community. Its always good to see new faces in here, since they can bring in their knowledge.

 

[wombat1]

Most folks run their skimmer during their cycle with live rock. I've never tried running lights 24/7, but I can tell you 14/10 works just fine. BTW, my number one rule of reefkeeping: DON'T trust the advice of anyone who is selling you something!

 

[Vixyswillie]

As for refugium lighting, studies have shown that macroalgae gets best results when having 16/8 lighting period (16 hrs on, 8 hrs off).

Can you dredge up a link for that, Bill? Do you recall if it was a formal study? I'm just getting to the point of starting up a fuge on my system and would be interested in reading more about light cycles. Initially, I was just going to run it on a cycle directly opposite my display tank lights.

Thanks for the info.