system split

[saleencobra]

After aprox 3 yrs I am failing at keeping a reef and fowlr togehter on the same filtration. The nitrates are at 35 and the phosphates are .05 . Needless to say the only thing happy are some clams, some mushrooms and a hardy cabbage leather. I have 2 g6 skimmers and a small nitrate reactor along with 5 phos reactors and two refugiums. I change about 80 gallons of sw a month. Should I make one of the refugiums a sump for the reef and just give up on trying to keep everything together?

 

[Elliott]

how much live rock do you have in the reef? do you have a large bioload? need a little more info: size of the two tanks, sump, fuge, LR, DSB or BB, lighting and water parameters. Waste import is overpowering the tank's ability to export.

 

[saleencobra]

I think I have about 600lbs of live rock.I do have alot of fish but for the tank sizes it doesnt seem above normal.It is actually five tanks.300 reef and a 300,375 and two 115s fowlr. very little sand in the displays. sump is a 180. fuges are a 100 with reef mud and macros and a 180 with a dsb and macros.lighting is a mix of vho,pc and halides over the reef. ph 8.3,alk 2.17 and cal 350

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Without even knowing what you keep in all those FOWLRs I would suggest splitting the system. The fish don't need the same quality of water as the reef, but be careful after the split that things dont get too bad for them!

 

[saleencobra]

can phosphates hurt the fish or just inverts and corals?

 

[Elliott]

I agree, split the FOWLR's from the reef tank, your fish will do just fine with higher phosphates and nitrates, no need to expose your reef to higher ammonia coming from the FOWLR's.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

If I understand reef chemistry correctly, the phosphates are not so much "harmful", but they will feed algae and stunt the growth of corals and coralline algae. I would definitely worry about your nitrates too!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10990588#post10990588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saleencobra
can phosphates hurt the fish or just inverts and corals?

 

[saleencobra]

This is what I want to try to do to the 180 refugium to seperate the reef from the fish. Please critique

 

[saleencobra]

 

[Elliott]

don't know if I'm understanding your drawing correctly but I don't see the separation of the two systems. I see two intakes and one going out. the two systems should not share any water

 

[saleencobra]

the exisiting sump on the left is the one i would leave for the fowlr. the fuge on the right would be the new sump for the reef. no water would mix. can you see anything wrong with draing reef water to the fowlr when doing water changes?

.

 

[Elliott]

If I am understanding correctly, when you do a water change on your reef you will use newly mixed water and use the otherwise discarded water for the FOWLR water change? I see no problem with that except you will still need to do newly mixed water changes on the FOWLR but maybe less frequently.

 

[saleencobra]

that is what i was thinking. does the layout of the sump look good to ya,would you change anything?

 

[Elliott]

I presume you will move one of the skimmers over to the reef sump and keep part of the sump, before the return, as the fuge. Looks good

 

[saleencobra]

I was going to leave the asm where they are and get a new one for the reef. There are so many opinions and types of skimmers,that will be the hardest choice.

 

[Elliott]

I'm running a large dual Beckett, Barr 5220 from austinoceans.com and really like it. I'm running it off a Pan World 250 pressure rated pump.