refugium questions

[mountaindew]

a couple of questions about my system.How long should the middle light on the refugium stay on.Just live rock and live sand in the middle.2nd question is I ve been reading on here that you should take out the bio-balls alittle at a time and then do away with them.why put them in the tank in the first place

 

[Krish]

If the refugium hasn't been set up yet, then you don't need the bio-balls in there. They only say remove them slowly if you've had them in your system for a while, as over time, they will house a lot of bacteria that will shock your system had you removed all the bio-balls one time. As for the light...It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Some people will run it 24/7 if keeping caulerpa, some will run the light on an alternate photo period from the tank if using different macro algaes to help maintain a constant ph in the tank and then some just run them with the main display. There's no one way or right way to really go about it, just what works for you. What may help though is if you tell us what your plans are for that section of your fuge and maybe we can help you decide on a good photoperiod

 

[mountaindew]

refugium

I am all new to this but what I want to do is have live sand and some pieces of live rock with some sort of alge in there

 

[Krish]

Ahh...Cool. Well IMO, you really don't need the live sand or live rock in there if you don't want. The live rock that will be kept in your main display would be able to perform all the biological filtration your tank will need so it's not totally necessary. You can always just put the algae in the fuge by itself to bind up whatever excess nitrates and phosphate are in the system. However,if you do still plan on putting in sand and live rock in your sump, just keep in mind that live rock sheds, so if you don't have sufficient flow in your refugium, it will need regular maintenance to remove any settled detritus/waste in there so it won't degrage your water quality. As for the photo period, if you are going to keep something like chaeto, I'd personally run it on an alternate photoperiod from the tank. That way, you can maintain a constant ph throughout the day, and won't heat up your water as much with 2 sets of lights on at one time. Just a thought...

 

[class clown]

good suggestion Krish.. I just turned the lights on the refugium to a nightime cycle vs. the daytime one now.. Well see if it makes a difference - I never thought of it before, but it makes total sense.

Nice tip! thanks!

 

[Krish]

good suggestion Krish.. I just turned the lights on the refugium to a nightime cycle vs. the daytime one now.. Well see if it makes a difference - I never thought of it before, but it makes total sense.

Nice tip! thanks!

No prob!

 

[Dr. Dee]

Hey i run my lights 24/7.Sometimes if you run days and at night when the lights are off the plants get sexual and you might get a yellow tint and if so just run some carbon to clear it up.:idea:

 

[Reefdaddy1]

Hey i run my lights 24/7.Sometimes if you run days and at night when the lights are off the plants get sexual and you might get a yellow tint and if so just run some carbon to clear it up.:idea:

Caluerpa<sp> is reknown for getting yellow tinge in water and going sexual, Cheato has much less of that, I have run both and found Cheato much more user friendly, to coin a phrase.

 

[Dr. Dee]

Caluerpa<sp> is reknown for getting yellow tinge in water and going sexual, Cheato has much less of that, I have run both and found Cheato much more user friendly, to coin a phrase.

Yep i agree with that

 

[mountaindew]

refugium

so what krish is saying is I dont need to put LR and LS in the refuge,I can just put in the cheato in there.How much do I need.Its a 110gal. with 150lbs of live rock in the tank.Its a 15 gal. refugium

 

[Krish]

Yeah, a lot of people just toss a ball of chaeto in their sumps and call it a day. You won't benefit much off of live sand and live rock in a 15gal sump especially seeing your tank will hold 150lbs of it. As for how much chaeto you'd need, you don't want to over pack it in there as it has to have room to grow to work for you. Every so often, you will have to prune it back to export those bound up excess nutrients out of your sump so they won't be in your system anymore so I'd say probably about a softball size ball of chaeto should work good. It will pretty soon out grow that sump if the proper lighting and excess nutrients are available to it

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Anthony has mentioned high flow over the chaeto is best, as in a tumbling mass