New Sump/Refugium advice

jtesdall

Premium Member
I finally have my sump plumbed and running. I setup a 30 gallon in the basement with a 1" return. I just have a homemade Overflow for now, so I am thinking about 400 gallons/hr.

I bought some refugium mud and plan on putting on a cap of about 1" of aragonite. My 55 reef has been setup fpr about 8 years without a sump/refugium with a 1 1/2" crushed coral bed and about 50 lbs of live rock. Medium Bio load with 6 small-medium fish, 3 Percs, Sailfin, Coral B and Blue Tang.

I am planning on soaking and mixing the mud in a bucket of tank water for about 2 hours and then pouring off the top water in the bucket. Then I plan on disconnecting the sump from my tank and adding the mud.

Now for the questions: Where to proceed from here so as not to mess up any load/bacteria issues and kill anything off?

1. I am planning to have the sump off overnight or for a day when I first add the mud.

2. Then I plan on circulating the sump for about 2 days not connected to the aquarium.

3. Then add top layer of aragonite, live rock and macro algae to refugium. Then let water clear in sump.

4. Then hook everything up???

If I start the mud tonight I figure I will be up and running by about Saturday night or Sunday. What do you all think, too quick?? Different process?
 
That sounds like a solid plan to me. I'm just not familiar with placing the aragonite on top of the mud.
 
Don't forget to have the sump heated too, I wasn't thinking, and the chilly water from the sump dropped temps, by over 10°, when I added my sump.

For the mud/live-sand, I added some water first, couple gals, all the mud, then live-sand, then mixed them up so I had some mud near the surface, so some of the nutrients would get exported out over time. I added the remaining water after it settled, then hooked it up. My return pump feed the fuge, so I couldn't just circulate the sump, that may be a great idea to have yours circ. for a bit, as it will helps with some cloudiness (I still had a bunch) and to heat the sump.

DSC00106.JPG
 
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Thanks for the heating reminder and the pics. Looks like you have a mangrove in there?

Hopefully I am on the right track.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9866797#post9866797 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jtesdall
Thanks for the heating reminder and the pics. Looks like you have a mangrove in there?
There were 13 mangroves in there. I don't have an AutoTop off and mangroves reaaaally don't like salinty changes so they died off...:(
 
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