Refuge cleaning.

[RyanM]

Any of you ever clean out your fuge? Mine is getting pretty nasty. Macro is doing fine but I have a good bit of red slime on one end and it just over all doesnt look very healthy. Maybe it is and my macro is thanking me but Id still like to clean it out. Any of you clean out your fuge regularly? If so how do you do it? Pull out the macro and place it in a bucket, drain it and clean and refill? Seems it would kill alot of pods and such tho.

I have thought about taking the macro out, draining the tank and sifting the water thru a filter sock to catch all the life. Dump the water and rinse the sock in my display. Would kick up the pop populatio0n at least for a bit my mandarin keeps it stripped.

 

[Capt_Cully]

I was inspired by a TOTM a few months back. He cleans his Chaeto every 3 days. Needless to say, I thought that was a bit much. But, I did pay attention. About once a month, I shut off flow to the refugium. Shake the *&^@$ out of my chaeto and pull it out and throw it in a bucket. Then I siphon off all the crud left in the fuge. I rinse the chaeto with more water I'm siphoning off for a water change, then throw it back in. Put in new saltwater and hook everything back up.

Does it help, I dunno?, But it's gotta be better to remove all that DOC from the system.

 

[RyanM]

I think thats what im going to do, clean it out once a month. Well Ill see how it does frst then take it from there.

 

[daveverdo]

I am setting up my first fuge and have been doing research, several sources suggest having snails, hermits, or other microalgae eaters in the fuge (at least one reference is Calfo and Fenner, Reef Invertebrates). It supposedly cuts down on competition with the macro algae so the macro can do what it is supposed to do.

I have had FO tanks for years without a sump. One of the main reasons I am setting up a sump/fuge is so that I can have a mandarin down the line. Just curious, do you visually notice any pod population in the fuge? Do you notice any increase in the display?

Dave

 

[gsxunv04]

i clean my whole sump monthly. just make up enough water to fill er back up

and get a roll or two of paper towels, a siphon tube, and a scraper.

 

[RyanM]

My sump is full of pods and shrimp. That is the only reason I hesitate to clean it out. Some will be left in the macro after cleaning im sure but I would think that after cleaning the sump it would be a whole lot less populated for a little while. So many that yes you can see them no problem. Shrimp pods worms everything imaginable is in my fuge. Keeps my mandarin alive and happy.

 

[daveverdo]

Shrimp pods worms everything imaginable is in my fuge. Keeps my mandarin alive and happy.

What do you have in the fuge? Just the macro? A sand bed? Live rock?

Do you have any cleaners?

I'll be setting mine up in a week or so and was wondering what to incorporate.

Sorry if I am hijacking the thread.

Dave

 

[RyanM]

I only have macro, no sand or anything else. The only life in my fuge besided my macro grew out of the little bit of macro I started with. The shrimp are small brine I guess. Live rock would make it harder to clean id think. A sand bed would also add to the cleaning effort. I think it works fine with only macro.

 

[RyanM]

I couldnt wait any longer and this weekend I cleaned out my refuge. It was to say the least Discusting!! Got nailed a few times thru my gloves by bristle worms. They hurt. Almost like a bee sting. Anyway, its all cleaned out. I have to say I was amazed at the crap that was in there. At least a 1/4" of detrious on the bottom. I couldnt believe how dirty it was. I know my tank is breathing a sigh of relief. Had to be adding way more polutant's to the tank then the macro was taking out. I drained all the water, hand picked the nicest clumps of macro and refilled it with new water. After seeing the mess in there I will keep it cleaner and plan on making that part of my monthly water change duty.

 

[larrybird]

Ryan , I wouldn't worry about the pods etc... they will quickly repopulate. I like to keep y refuge clean and thin out my macro from time to time .

 

[St.james of reefdom]

when I clean my sump I only deal with the macro.
I trim it and throw away the trimmings then I will turn over the macro so it forces it grow back.
I also have red cyano , I do think though alot of it is produced because of the PC lamps I use on the sump.

 

[RyanM]

I had tons of cyano in my refuge. It was completely covering the top of my macro. It didnt hurt my macro growth. It was green and growing very fast. I was affraid it would start to kill it. Besides the fact I was getting a fair amount of cyano in my display. I did everything I could to keep it in check but every day it was a battle. Soon as I saw how bad my refuge was I knew something had to be done. I ran all my water from my sump thru a diatom filter and took a turkey baster and kept blowing the cyano into the water colum in my display. Every day 2 or 3 times a day I kept blowing it off the rocks and sand so it would be filtered out.
Ater I got most of it out and stirred up I shut the lights of for 2 days while running the diatom filter the whole time. During that time I clean out the fuge. Its only been 2 days but I am happy to see that my tank is alot cleaner and no signs of cyano. Usually it would be there soon as the lights came on every day. We shall see.

I also use pc's over my sump. I think that is going to change soon tho. I have been looking at going with a grow bulb.

 

[Capt_Cully]

Nice work. I was amazed at how much crud (and the smell) I got out of my refugium. It's got to only benefit your tank to removed all of those DOC's. Mine is BB with only a few pieces of LR rubble. Chaeto and Saw Blade ?Caulerpa?. It chokes out the Chaeto so I tear out clumps from time to time. I have a few hermits and a sand sifting star in there.

Now I wish it would be that easy to scrape the shizzle out of my sump and remove all that crud. I'm workin on it.

 

[seattownreefer]

hey RyanM, did cleaning your refugium stop the red slime in your display tank? having a similar problem

 

[RyanM]

Stop it? No. It did however greatly slow it down and I am presently watching it. Its been a week since and I still have some but it isnt growing. I dont have to mess with it like I did. Before I cleaned it out I was blowing it off daily. I havent had to touch it since then. It was bad enough that I thought about useing antibiotics. Now Im glad I didnt and am very hopefull that more attentive tank maintenance will take care of whats left. I have almost none on my sand anymore and just a little here and there on my over flow and back glass. If what I had was 100% before my refuge cleaning, Id call what I have now 5% left. IMO blowing it around works but only if you are removing it when you stir it up.. It may look better just after but unless you remove it, it will settle and grow everywhere. A diatom filter works great if you have to blow it around. If your system is the same as mine I would recomend it highly. Clean that scum bucket out.
I know it did wonders for the health of my tank in general. Everything in my tank seems tons happier. The water is clearer and all my corals seems to like the enviroment much better.
I was never unhappy about the state of my corals but If they could talk I think they would be thanking me.