Size of sump and amount of rock.

pledosophy

Active member
I have just setup a 20g long and was wondering can your sump be to big?

My sump holds 40g's and has a built in trickle filter which is filled with about 65lbs of live rubble rock. The other part of the sump contains a 15lbs piece of LR, some chaeto, and some caulphera. It is lit 24/7. Is the size going to be too much?

Also I have close to 100lbs of LR total between the sump and the tank, can you have too much?
 
wow thats awsome! no you cant have too big of a sump. It will just make the tank more stable :) The only thing i'd do is leave the light over the chaeto on for just the opposite as your tank lights...so when the tank lights go out..turn on the fuge light..when the tank lights come back on...turn the fuge light back off.
 
May I ask why?

IME I like to light the refugium 24/7 to keep the less stable but faster growing caulphera's from going sexual.

Does the light have something to do with pod production?
 
no the light doesnt have anything to do w/pods that i know of. But the reason i say run it on opposite schedule as the main tank is this.

When the lights in the main tank go out...the algae and stuff in there releases all/some of the nutrients in it. This is why algae may appear to "die" at night, but then in the morning it picks the nutrients back up and grows right back.

So by running the fuge lights at night while the main tank is off, the chaeto and/or caulphera (however you spell/say it lol) it will take in the nutrients that the algae in the tank just let out...and the chaeto doesnt release it back out when the lights go out, so i guess its just gone or something.

So if you run 24/7, i guess it wont hurt anything, but the bulb will sure run out faster, and i found that it made no difference during the day. I was having problems w/nitrates in my 55 for a while. I added a small fuge and ran the light in there for 24/7 for a while, and it would take away nitrates only when the main tank lights were out. I guess all the algae in there was outcompeting the chaeto or something for the nitrates.
 
I say it Kee Toe ad Koe loo pra. ;) :D:D

I know when I was breeding mysid shrimp for my seahorse fry that the shrimp would only spawn at night. I found after putting the lights on a 12 hour cycle tht my numbers went way up. I have never tried to measure my numbers in pod production, and don't think I will. TO many to count.

For my display tanks I have always just run them 24/7. I use those spirl energy saving bulbs so they last a few years for a couple of bucks.

Where I live it is pretty cool so no worries on the heat it produces.

Thanks.
 
ya i've also had good luck with the plain spiral household bulbs. Chaeto grew just fine for me with that. Some people say you have to have a certain light...i've found that mine grew no matter what lol. I'm sure that if its too big tho, it probably does need a special light.
 
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