-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Refugium
- Thread starter bmwalley
- Start date
My opinion is yes it is worth it. the chato pulls a lot of nitrates out of the main tank plus the culture of copapods that feed your tank if you do it right.
You mention a wet dry system and a canister (the Fuval) and 300 lbs or LR.
Before you go out and spend money on a refugium, I recommend you get the existing filtration system upgraded.
You don't mention a skimmer. If you don't have one I recommend you spend the money there first. It will do a lot more for your system than a refugium will.
Wet dry systems tend to become nitrate factories. This is because they are so good at reducing ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate that nothing else gets a chance to do anything. Assuming you are using something like a trickle filter, you may actually improve things by removing the bio balls or other media.
Canister filters also tend to become nitrate factories unless you clean them often. This might also be something you want to phase out, or just use for chemical media. In any case, do clean it weekly.
300 lbs of live rock is about 1 1/2 to 2 times what is normally recommended. I tend to think that the system is so full of rock that many dead spots in the rock are created. You may want to remove some.
Once you have all that worked out then consider a refugium. As pointed out, they can do a lot.
Before you go out and spend money on a refugium, I recommend you get the existing filtration system upgraded.
You don't mention a skimmer. If you don't have one I recommend you spend the money there first. It will do a lot more for your system than a refugium will.
Wet dry systems tend to become nitrate factories. This is because they are so good at reducing ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate that nothing else gets a chance to do anything. Assuming you are using something like a trickle filter, you may actually improve things by removing the bio balls or other media.
Canister filters also tend to become nitrate factories unless you clean them often. This might also be something you want to phase out, or just use for chemical media. In any case, do clean it weekly.
300 lbs of live rock is about 1 1/2 to 2 times what is normally recommended. I tend to think that the system is so full of rock that many dead spots in the rock are created. You may want to remove some.
Once you have all that worked out then consider a refugium. As pointed out, they can do a lot.