I am building a refugium to add to my existing 325 gallon system and would really appreciate thoughts on how to configure the internal chambers given the constraints of my design. Any other thoughts and suggestions would also be very much appreciated.
I have attached a schematic showing what I have and what I am adding.
My tank houses 9 fish and mostly Acropora and Montipora. The coral is healthy and growing slowly.
My current sump/refugium is 75 gallons. Right now the standpipes drain from the overflow into socks housed in the first 30 gallon chamber where I have chaeto, live rock, snails, bristleworms as well as the other small creatures you would expect to find. The next chamber has the skimmer and then a couple of small baffles before the external return pump.
Although my nitrates, nitrites and ammonia have always measured very very low it is clear that I do have excess nutrients because I have an over abundance of an unusual purple algae that I woud like to discourage. I attribute my low readings to the 30 gallon water changes I perform weekly. I would like to decrease the number of water changes I have to do and I would like to increase nutrient export and provide more amphipods, copepods, mysis and rotifers for life in the display tank.
I will be eliminating my current refugium - mostly because I don't want to have two sets of lights - one on the old fuge and another bigger light on the new one.
Should my new refugium tank be divided into different chambers to accomadate the different things I want? I want to get some xenia, chaeto, live rock and sand etc and would also love to have a clam. How big should the chambers be and how many baffles should I have?
I have attached a schematic showing what I have and what I am adding.
My tank houses 9 fish and mostly Acropora and Montipora. The coral is healthy and growing slowly.
My current sump/refugium is 75 gallons. Right now the standpipes drain from the overflow into socks housed in the first 30 gallon chamber where I have chaeto, live rock, snails, bristleworms as well as the other small creatures you would expect to find. The next chamber has the skimmer and then a couple of small baffles before the external return pump.
Although my nitrates, nitrites and ammonia have always measured very very low it is clear that I do have excess nutrients because I have an over abundance of an unusual purple algae that I woud like to discourage. I attribute my low readings to the 30 gallon water changes I perform weekly. I would like to decrease the number of water changes I have to do and I would like to increase nutrient export and provide more amphipods, copepods, mysis and rotifers for life in the display tank.
I will be eliminating my current refugium - mostly because I don't want to have two sets of lights - one on the old fuge and another bigger light on the new one.
Should my new refugium tank be divided into different chambers to accomadate the different things I want? I want to get some xenia, chaeto, live rock and sand etc and would also love to have a clam. How big should the chambers be and how many baffles should I have?
