Help with Refugium & Wet/Dry Install

[ReefJeff]

Hello Reefers,



Recently I purchased a 110 gallon tank that I converted to freshwater but it came with a 30 gal refugium and 20/25 gallon wet/dry (see pics).



I have a 50 gallon reef tank that I am currently running an AquaClear 70 and a Remora HOB skimmer. I have some nice soft corals and about 50 lbs of live rock. I have 3 maroon clowns, a yellow tang and a couple small blue damsels. I have a LED light system reefKoi.



I want to know if installing this setup is over-kill for my 3 year old reef or should I just sell it?



If I do use it, what is the best way to set it up? I know I can put the heater in the refugium and I can get a skimmer for the wet/dry but what should go in the refugium? I do have a CF light that came with the refugium as well.



The wet/dry has an internal pump even though the setup was for an external but the guy converted it. Hope thats not an issue.



Thank you guys.

 

[pandora32]

I wouldnt say its overkill. More water=more stability. One thing i would do is remove those bio-balls. Waste trap is all those are. As for what to put in the fuge, macro algaes and sand. Seeing that its acrylic makes it easy to modify with baffles to hold your alges in place.

 

[ReefJeff]

Thank you for the advice. I have a lot of caulerpa growing in my tank and not sure how to get rid of it. I thought possibly of putting all the live rock in the refugium and start over in the main tank. But, I am sure pieces would somehow get through and eventually wind up there too.

Thats why I thought of using the refugium or buy a bigger and better HOB skimmer?

 

[Maxx]

If you want to rid your rock of calerpa, just keep it in water, in total darkness for about 6 weeks. A rubbermaid that holds all of your rock and a powerhead for circulation will sufice. Change the water every two weeks or so, and the lack of light will kill off the calerpa.

Wet dry filters are great for fish only systems. Not good for reef systems.

Wet dry filters have a wet area and a dry area. The dry area is an ideal home for aerobic bacteria. Aerobic bacteria break down nitrites and ammonia, and convert them to nitrates. Fish and some hardy inverts (crabs, shrimp, etc), can handle elevated nitrates, but corals and anemones can not.

Anaerobic bacteria breaks down nitrates. Anerobic bacteria lives deep in the rockwork in areas of little or no oxygen.

A wet dry filter is geared more towards a larger population of aerobic bacteria which will produce large amounts of nitrate.

This is why wet dry filters are known as nitrate factories.

Its actually alot more complicated than how I've explained it, but that is the simple version which will suffice.

I would suggest not using the wet dry at all, or modifying it into a normal sump. If you mod it into a normal type of sump, you'll probably get more use out of it.

Nick

 

[morkal]

I thought possibly of putting all the live rock in the refugium and start over in the main tank. But, I am sure pieces would somehow get through and eventually wind up there too.

 

[Maxx]

The only way to prevent algae like calerpa from migrating from the sump to the main display is to use a UV sterilizer on the return, with a slow enough flow to kill/destroy all cells passing through it....which would also pretty much negate any pods making it to the main display from the sump.

 

[ReefJeff]

Thanks again for the advice. If I did not have such nice corals and mushrooms growing on the rock it would be a good idea to rid the rock and start over but as said, some pieces of calerpa could remain in the main tank and just grow on the new rock. So I can just pick it out as I am doing now or start my reef over but then I feel I would be disrupting a good looking reef with the exception of the calerpa.

On a side note to the use of the wet/dry and turn it into a sump, would it be practical to replace my Remora C (which does not seem to be doing anything anymore even with a new pump) and get Reef Octopus® BH2000 HOB skimmer with external OTP 2000 pump and keep my AquaClear 70 for filtration or is the OTP 2000 overkill for a 50 gallon reef and just go with the OTP 1000? Figure for $20.00 more the pump size is double at 500gph as to the 250 gph on the OTP 1000.

 

[pandora32]

Airflow (lph) is just as important if not more than water flow (gph). I may ne wrong, but if my memory is correct, you want airflow up around 600 lph to be good. Also, get a skimmer thats rated 2x the size of your tank. 100g, get a skimmer rated for 200g. Jmo on the matter.

 

[Bosco]

I agree with some of the other replies. I would get rid of the bio-balls and the wet-dry, both are just nitrate factories which should not be in a reef sump. You might want to put in a bio-pellet reactor in the sump to keep nitrates and phosphates down.