Refugium cookin'

[MarkD40]

My 20 gallon refugium has been up only 1 week with a small amount of chaeto added. I am lighting it with a 6100K 500 watt PC floodlight I purchased at Home Depot for $39. When I put the Chaeto in it was very pale and stringy. After 1 week and the addition of iron supplement the chaeto has firmed up and gotten a very dark green. I have a rubble bottom with 1"-2" pieces of LR suspended on eggcrate that is suspended 2 inches off the bottom of the tank to create a benthic zone. I have 250gph flowing through the fuge. With the 24/7 lighting a good amount of nuisance algae is already covering the rubble, even some hair algae which I have not had growing in my tank for at least 2 years. (Hopefully my 40 watt UV will kill any spores before they make it into my display tank.)

Now for the results. I used to get a light growth of algae on my display tank glass that I would clean off daily. I also had a fine lawn of "good" algae on my uppermost rock that my Tangs kept under control.

In the last three days I have not needed to clean my glass, and the algae on my rock is receding! This after one week! I have always had problems with cyano and the small amount I have is receding as well. I am really pleased. It only took me 7 years to put in a fuge. My advice is that if you are having problems with cyano or algae put in a refugium!

 

[sttroyiii]

Did you get your eggcrate from HD? If you dont mind, how did you suspend it as well. I just set up my refugium this weekend, and Im about to stock it. I was going to do the same thing with a rubble bottom, but I was wondering what I was going to do about detritus amongst the rocks.

 

[MarkD40]

sttroyiii,

I got the eggcrate from HD. It is suspended on strips of eggcrate cut 2" wide and attached by the sides to the horizontal eggcrate with self-locking cable ties.

I got the idea for the benthic zone from mr. wilson. He has a video you can watch that explains the rationale for the zone. The rubble bottom is loosely packed so that any detritis will fall through the cracks. I am hoping to develop a community of pods to clean up any detritis. I may not be able to support any pods because my refugium is piggy-backed off of my 75 gallon sump with a DSB. All of my water from the overflow on my display passes through a 100 micron filter pad for mechanical filtration before it enters my skimmer or sump, so large detritis will not make it into the refugium.

The main purpose for my refugium was for nutrient export which it seems to be doing well even at this early stage. Hopefully it will get better with age like me.

 

[sttroyiii]

So would you be able to lift the eggcrate up and siphon out detritus underneath? I have a filter bag that Ive never used. Do you just tie it over the end of the return pipe? Thanks for the info.

 

[MarkD40]

Yes you could lift out the eggcrate easily if you took the rock off which if they are big enough pieces would be easy to do.

I can't help you with the filter bag as I have never used one but that sounds right.

I have a 5 gallon bucket suspended above my sump. The bottom of the bucket has a bulkhead that drains water to my skimmer that is outside my sump "high and dry". About 6" from the bottom of the bucket I have another bulkhead through the side of the bucket. Most of the water gets sent to the skimmer through the bottom bulkhead, but since my circulation pump has a much higher gph than my skimmer pump the skimmer pump can't handle all of the return from my display. The bulkhead in the side of the bucket allows this excess water to drain into my sump so the bucket does not overflow.

Inside the bucket I have a large plastic flowerpot drilled with 1/2" holes that is suspended in the bucket higher than the side bulkhead so it is above the water. Inside that I have a smaller 8" fenestrated basket that is sold at HD to hold plantings that are placed on the ledges in outdoor ponds. Into this basket goes the return water from my display. When I am cleaning my tank, or just want to polish the water I put a 50 or 100 micron filter pad in the basket so that all the return water must pass through the pad before it enters the sump or skimmer. When I am done cleaning I remove the pad after the water is cleared and hose it off in a bucket and it is good as new.

When I vacuum my tank I just stick a 1/2" ID tube down my overflow pipe. I can vacuum all day as the water just recirculates. All the detritus and junk gets nicely trapped in the filter pad and my water stays sparkling clean, even after vacuuming my gravel which usually makes such a mess.

 

[sttroyiii]

Sounds like a nice setup. I wish I had a room to do all of that in. Those basket-pots...I always wondered what they were called! lol

 

[MarkD40]

Fenestrated is just a fancy name for full of holes. I don't know what they actually call the baskets!

 

[midknight]

Sounds like a cool setup, do you have any "Visual aids" ie pictures of the whole setup?

 

[MarkD40]

I will try to get some pics.