GT Audio Works
New member
Hi all,
I am in the planning stages of building a new system for my salt water fish.
At the moment the old tank is down and the only inhabitants (2 clowns) are doing well in a 20gal that was used for my wet dry sump in the old tank.
See below pic.
The new tank is a reef ready 50 gal cube.
At this time I plan on fish only, but that may change in the future depending on the success of this setup.
My plan for ease of maintenance is to have the sump downstairs so I have plenty of room to do water changes.
I am told its best to not use a mechanical filtration as this may worsen water quality. In the old wet dry system I had the water spill into a 12x12 tray with perforated bottom it held a layer of that white 50 micron filter pad that I cleaned regularly. The water dripped onto approximately .6 cuft of SEAChem Matrix bio media. The tank has always been in fair shape but suffered from excessive algae growth. My neglect of maintenance has a lo to do with that.. Having a place to spread out without making a mess in the living room will make my wife happy and allow me to maintain it more regularly.
I have a 30 gal. long I will use for a refugium.
I would like to have a deep sand bed with little critters to eat what flows down from up top.
I plan on using Chaetomorpha macro algae lit up by two 13 watt
5,500K-6,500K LED bulbs. I will build a skimmer.
My only worry is what I have read about Hydrogen sulfide gas getting out of the sand bed.
My other alternative is no sand bed and lots of live rock and rubble rock to support the crabs shrimp and worms etc.
Any thoughts or suggestions on Sand bed or No sand bed, flow rates through the sump and the skimmer (simple DIY down draft 3' tall skimmer with an adjustable flow pump to circulate water through it).
Suggestions on other possibilities of macro algae and what crabs, worms, shrimps and critters to have in the refugium.
Thanks,
Greg
I am in the planning stages of building a new system for my salt water fish.
At the moment the old tank is down and the only inhabitants (2 clowns) are doing well in a 20gal that was used for my wet dry sump in the old tank.
See below pic.
The new tank is a reef ready 50 gal cube.
At this time I plan on fish only, but that may change in the future depending on the success of this setup.
My plan for ease of maintenance is to have the sump downstairs so I have plenty of room to do water changes.
I am told its best to not use a mechanical filtration as this may worsen water quality. In the old wet dry system I had the water spill into a 12x12 tray with perforated bottom it held a layer of that white 50 micron filter pad that I cleaned regularly. The water dripped onto approximately .6 cuft of SEAChem Matrix bio media. The tank has always been in fair shape but suffered from excessive algae growth. My neglect of maintenance has a lo to do with that.. Having a place to spread out without making a mess in the living room will make my wife happy and allow me to maintain it more regularly.
I have a 30 gal. long I will use for a refugium.
I would like to have a deep sand bed with little critters to eat what flows down from up top.
I plan on using Chaetomorpha macro algae lit up by two 13 watt
5,500K-6,500K LED bulbs. I will build a skimmer.
My only worry is what I have read about Hydrogen sulfide gas getting out of the sand bed.
My other alternative is no sand bed and lots of live rock and rubble rock to support the crabs shrimp and worms etc.
Any thoughts or suggestions on Sand bed or No sand bed, flow rates through the sump and the skimmer (simple DIY down draft 3' tall skimmer with an adjustable flow pump to circulate water through it).
Suggestions on other possibilities of macro algae and what crabs, worms, shrimps and critters to have in the refugium.
Thanks,
Greg
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