vikinglord13
New member
What do you mean water flow in both directions? Flow the reverse way through the sock so the fauna can escape?
Pod-maximizing refugia
- Thread starter rlpardue
- Start date
karimwassef
Active member
It's a general statement about flow and mechanical filtration, not specific to this approach
darrick001
Member
This is one of reasons I started working on a new design. IMO the filter sock has to big of trade off. Every time I cleaned them out they were full of pods. I was spending time and money to run a separate tank to increase their population just to filter them back out. I removed the socks and then had to deal with the extra nitrate's. Added the sulfur reactor and now there was to much co2 causing a cyno out break. Added an air exchange chamber after the reactor and now everything seems stable. Everything we do causes a reaction.
karimwassef
Active member
I just took out mechanical filtration and added ATS for nutrient export.
darrick001
Member
That is a valid point. I have struggled with that idea for a while. One benefit our skimmers' provide that is often overlooked is gas exchange. If I remove it how much will it affect my o2and co2 levels. Anyone with a do2 sensor want to give it a try?
karimwassef
Active member
I turn my skimmer off at night to keep more plankton alive
vikinglord13
New member
What one could do is have the pod-producing refugium after the pump. IE: have it gravity fed to the DT. If one wanted to have the mechanical filtration it can be after the pump and before the refugium; therefore, the refugium is last in the sump flow.
karimwassef
Active member
True. The trick is how to drive this without having a pressurized container or a siphon that pulls in air into the DT. I use actuated valves to do this.
SeattleReefer
New member
I tried that- display refugium sitting above the DT draining straight to DT.
Too many bubbles in the DT.
vikinglord13
New member
Interesting. Was your refugium outlet above your DT water line or beneath it?
SeattleReefer
New member
beneath- my water line is right at the top of the DT. I believe that in either case a drain from above into the DT will introduce bubbles.
What would be perfect would be some electronically controlled valves to provide flow to refugium only at night or when I'm away.
and btw I've been meaning to ask a question in this thread... do you guys have snails in the pod refugium?
karimwassef
Active member
I use DIY Apex controlled actuated 2" knife valves
That's awesome, I don't wanna add Mulm to my display tank because I don't think it's gonna look good, so probably I'm thinking to add it to my refugium, my tank is a 20 gallon and I also have a mandarin, it mostly is eating live gut loaded brine shrimp but I really want to increase the population of pods so at some point him won't need a lof of live brine shrimp as he does right now.
So it seems I'm gonna need to remove the sponges and turn off my skimmer to see of that helps to increase the pod population without rising nitrates and phosphates.
I'm also runinning GAC so without the sponges I think the GAC will be a problem and I don't wanna remove it because I have SPS, LPS, polyps, pulsing xenias, mushrooms so they release lots of chemicals that can compromise the SPS.
OllieNZ
New member
I've seen mentioned elsewhere running the skimmer so it doesn't produce skimmate or running it really wet and letting it overflow back into the tank to keep the oxygenation effect without the impact on the microfauna
ThRoewer
New member
Different Mysis!
The Mysis you see swirling around in refugia and in your tank at night are specialized reef species that hitched a ride with live rock or more likely substrates of inverts. These guys usually hang out in rock cavities during the day and go hunting at night.
The frozen Mysis you feed are freshwater species that can't survive in saltwater. They are also way too clumsy to not get eaten right away (I know because I fed those live to my fish back in Germany when I could catch them myself).
Also, Mysis eggs would never survive being frozen or develop into Mysis without the mother to care for them and the larvae - they only release the little ones when they are fully developed mini Mysis.
I usually avoided having a mechanical filter like a sock on my tanks. Though, a gravel sedimentation filter should not affect
I actually found that quite a few species love to live inside a skimmer, especially those species that come from the tidal zone where crashing waves produce pretty much the same conditions you find in a skimmer. Especially certain snails predominantly settle inside skimmers. I found a lot of limpets in my old skimmer when I had to take it down. Ideally the skimmer is just a "sideshow" inside the sump to take some nutrients out and improve gas exchange. Ideally you don't have all water going through it.
I leave my skimmer on all the time.
I actually had my refugium on top of one of my tanks with a hang-on overflow into the tank. Today I moved it down below that tank and upgraded it from 10 to 20 gallon.
I had to take it down because it was ugly looking and way too dangerous up there.
The old refugium was primarily a nutrient export system with lots of chaeto and some other algae. I had some gravel in it - mostly clam shells from clams I fed and coral frags that died off. I also had a few live rock in there, mostly to shield the overflow pipe from the chaeto so it wouldn't be blocked.
For the most I had just one bought inhabitant there: a tiger pistol shrimp. At first I had just parked him there, but he turned out to be beneficial in keeping the detritus fluffy.
Detritus is another thing I think is beneficial. If any form of ground covering is used it should ideally be the coarsest gravel you can find. Better are dead coral skeletons, especially loose and branchy ones like birdsnest. The goal is to create lots of cavities for pods to settle in.
Chaeto is also highly beneficial as it creates a vast labyrinth in which many pods can hide.
It may also help to feed the refugium with pulverized flakes and micro algae. Nori may also worth a try.
Recently I had a pipefish in the fuge for recovery. It may have depleted some of the larger pods, but surely not all.
Here two videos of my old refugium:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O8cT0xBQjRk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PjrGaL7NzkI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
BTW, most of my pods I harvested from LFS systems, sumps and dirty corners of invert systems. What you find there has proven to live in a reef tank system and the likelihood is high that they will thrive in your tank as well.
With the pods you can buy from cultures it is always a gamble if they live or die in your system.
JonezNReef
Member
Nice ThRoewer! Thats a huge population of pods. I really hope I can achieve a population atleast half that size and I would be happy. Is your new refugium doing as well as your old one. Do you have any pictures or videos of your new one and how you set it up?
