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Need NJ opinions please.

P

PMolan

I normally post on RC, but most of them are jack-asses there. NJ reefers seem more educated anyway.

The setup: ~500g One system.

210g Mixed reef (Main floor)
120g (6X20) Broodstock tanks (Basement)
50g (5X10) larval rearing tanks (Basement)

Fish Room
---------
100g Refugium
60g sump
2 - MTC Power Pros 48"

The drain paths:
210 - Sump, Skimmer, *Refugium*, Return
120 - Refugium, Return
50 - Sump, Skimmer, *Refugium*, Return
**The skimmers dump into the refugium.

Mag 50 return feeds everything.

How much flow do I want through the refugium. As I add on to this system, I feel that I may have too much flow through there.

What kind of nutrients do I want to go into the refugium.
Example:
210 : Pellets, Flake, Mysis, Brine etc..
120 : More meaty foods. Chopped squid, clam, shrimp etc..
50 : Phyto and Rotifers.

I would think that the 50 should dump into the fuge to make use of any un eaten Phyto and Rotifers. On the other hand I dont want any rogue fry to end up in there and live :( This means the end of the "refugium".

I need criticism. Good or bad please.
 
H

harryk

I don't know if you should technically feed the refugium. Depending on how many drain lines you have coming in from your display, just let one of them dump into the refugium so it will get all the nutrients from the "dirty water" and the rest of your drain lines can go to your protein skimmer. This is just my opinion of course

Harry
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Some of the reading I have done suggests the fuge should only take water after the skimmer / filter socks / reactors, etc. Supplying nutrient rich water to the fuge causes the fuge to become a "nutrient sink" (whatever that means).

HTH
 
P

PMolan

Good opinions... Before adding that mess of a system downstairs, my display draines 60% sunp, 40% fuge. It was pretty successful doing that. Now that I added these tanks, the fuge was about to overflow. I had a 1.5" drain to the sump and I needed to drill another. Always a work in progress I guess.
 
B

BobCReef

i would say the 60/40 is about what i had running although i never measured it. only thing i have the fuge dump into the skimmer as well as from the tank
 
P

PMolan

Just started. I have a few pairs of clowns and a pair of cleaner gobies. The gobies are the only ones that laid eggs so far. Also I am trying to pair up some bangai cardinals.
 
M

monsterfishkeeper

I have always wanted to try my hand in breeding. What kind of food are you feeding the goby fry?

Back on track, I dont think you need to feed your fuge. It usually gets enough nutrients and food from the water cycling through it.
 
P

PMolan

I havent gotten that far yet. Before I knew it, they were laying eggs!! I need to get a culture of phyto and rotifers going soon. Most of them will start on rots in the beginning, then baby brine, and so on.

I keep getting side tracked. I just looked under the stairs and noticed that if I built 4 walls and used pond liner, 32X32X18 I can get 79.79 more gallons on my system ::) I'm going to the garage to see what I have :)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

PMolan said:
I would think that the 50 should dump into the fuge to make use of any un eaten Phyto and Rotifers. On the other hand I dont want any rogue fry to end up in there and live :( This means the end of the "refugium".
Click to expand...

how about a filter sock only on the outflow of the 50?
 
P

PMolan

That is a great idea!! Enough of a micron to let plankton through but not the fry.


By the way after building that plywood sump. Its only 62 gallons of volume. Oh well. At least now I can handle if the power goes out :)
 
C

Carlo

In the past I always ran skimmed water back into the fuge. After talking with a few individuals about alternate setups I tried it again where the fuge sat between the tank and sump (dirty water).

I so much hate this setup. I've been running it this way for close to a year to give it a good shake down but I can't express how much I dislike it.

The fuge litterally becomes a swamp unless you clean it a lot. I think it's a much better idea to clean the water first and then pass the water back into the fuge.

If you think about what's going on it probably makes sense. All the proteins in your tank rise to the top where they go down the overflow. THIS is the water you most want your skimmer to attack first. Give it the first shot at removing everything it can. If possible set up your sump so the skimmer processes all water in one compartment and dumps it to another compartment. Basically try to setup your flow rates so your skimmer(s) process 100% of the water that overflows. Try to avoid the typical sump/skimmer setup where the water just circulates in the sump as you can't control what water the skimmer is actually processing.

Now after having the water cleaned as much as possible (skimmer, carbons, GFOs, etc) pump part of the water to the fuge. No matter how much you skim there will still be some nutrients in the water for the cheato (or other algae) to use.

With a setup like the above the fuge will be much cleaner then if you run protein rich/dirty water into it. If you plump the fuge between the tank and sump a lot of stuff settles to the bottom (since there is slower flow) and breaks down. The algae is basically working with nutrients being released from the settled debris. The algae will grow like crazy of course because there are more nutrients but just because the algae is growing faster doesn't mean the system as a whole now has LESS nutrients in it.

I hope that was clear enough. If not I can elaborate more.

Carlo
 
P

PMolan

Great rundown. As it is now I have the skimmers feeding the fuge, just so happens it is right next to the skimmer and the easiest place to dump it. Im working on rerouting some pipes, so what happens is mainly going to be if it is easy.

Pic of my A.D.D. project(as mentioned above). Almost complete.
rdsb1.jpg

rdsb2.jpg

rdsb3.jpg


I hve the RDSB now at 36 X 24 X 6 :)
 
C

Carlo

Looking good. Can't wait to see updated pics with everything working!

BTW, did everything I mentioned make sense?

Carlo
 
P

PMolan

Sure did. Thanks. The way that I think this is going to happen is...
Flow from 210 display, 120 brood tanks, 50 grow out tanks is going to be dumped into a salt bucket in the sump. The top has layers of filter floss type material, below will be some sort of egg crate to hold it up. The bottom of the bucket will have a 3/4" hole for the intake of my mag 12 feeding my skimmers. There will also be other holes drilled in case the mag 12 is too strong, or not strong enough to process all of the water.

Picture posting mood :)
New tank setup 3 weeks ago
DSC07375.jpg


MTC skimmers
2skimmer.jpg


Bucket I was talking about above.
DSC07362.jpg


Refugium
DSC07323.jpg
 
C

Carlo

Nice setup, very similar to mine in concept with the skimmer pump(s) and regulating the flow. I think this is super important and something more people should do to get much better performance from their skimmers.

BTW, if you don't need that egg crate I'd remove it. I've been doing some testing at home due to algae growth I see at work with egg crate shelves.

In a nut shell I've found if you put the egg crate in SW water and have some circulation you can watch the phosphates rise and rise and rise some more over time. The egg crate I have purchased from HD/Lowes seems to leach phosphate like a mother... :) Same test done with "egg crate" that came with Pro Clear wet/dry doesn't do this. :(

If nothing else try testing a bit yourself with the egg crate and see if your is made from one of the materials that leach phosphates.

Carlo
 
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