DIY Refugium (advice needed)

Hello,

I have a 55 gal reef tank with many soft corals and a variety of fish. I have recently ran into a problem controling my phosphates and nitrates. I have turned to chemical filtration to help reduce these, however, I do need to seek a more perminant solution. I do have around 100 lbs of live rock, an under gravel filter, a berlin x2 skimmer, a phosphate reactor and a wet dry. Most of my corals are doing just fine; I do have some button polyps that have looked pretty sad for the past few weeks though. I am thinking that it is an issue with my phosphates and hope that this reactor may allow them to look healthy again. I have been contemplating adding a DIY refugium for quite some time now. I have heard mixed opinions though. I think that this is something my system can benefit from and that it will only improve the over all chemistry.

I was thinking that I would buy a small tank, maybe 5-10 gal that will sit next to the sump. I was going to have the out-flow from the phosphate reactor be the source of water. My first worry is that this will not be possible to establish with my current hardware. Any opinions that can be offered will be appreciated. The powerhead attached to my phosphate reactor is only a 300 gph pump and my magdrive that returns the water to my tank is a 500 gph pump. Is there any way that I can use the phosphate reactor as the supply and still have enough water to hold a resaviour? I was thinking that if the tank was taller this might be possible, but logically I am afraid that the 500 gal pump will depleat all of the water.

If this will work I am brought to my next concern. Can I keep my return pump in a refugium if I use miracle mud? Can I run my skimmer (which would also serve as another source of water) in the refugium if I keep mud in there? Can I keep pods in there with such a powerful return? Which plants are the best for maintaining the waters chemistry?

As you can see I have many uncertainties towards this thought. I can not increase my powerheads flow as the reactor can not take much more then 300. Will the fuge be capable of holding water with a 500 return pump? Will the skimmer provide the extra h20 needed to keep water in the fuge or will it just be competing with the return pump? Will all of these pumps essentially kill any pods or brine shrimp i attempt to raise in here?

 

well, i dont know about the mechanical specific questions you have, so i wll leave those for someone more sure. Cheato is good for a fuge, however, i think your undergravel filter is probably a major contributor to your problem. While installing you fuge, you should get rid of the undergravel filter, and you will probably see a huge drop in your numbers.

 

bump

 

Thanks for the reply. I have been considering turning the undergravel off but I am unsure of what effects this may have on my system. Can I just turn it off and leave the filter plate below my substrate? Should I expect a spike in my nutes when doing this?

 

I would NOT just turn off your undergravel filter! If that filter has been running for a period of time you will likely cause a very nasty re-cycle in your tank. If your plan is to discontinue using it I would remove small amounts of your substrate over a period of several weeks, then remove the filter plates.

 

As far as the fuge is concerned, sounds like you already have most room taken up by the sump. Is there anyway to split the sump by adding a baffle and adding the fuge there?

Have you thought about getting rid of the sump together entirely and converting that to the fuge?
You could have a remote DSB and use a stock tank like you find at farm and fleet type stores.
Ever consider one of the smaller hang on fuges?

In all reality I would start with taking out the UGF... I wouldn't be too concerned about elevated nutrients... Too many times old information gets constantly recycled even in times when it has been disproven... Consider the hydrogen sulfide scares, the T5s can't grow SPS scares and that copper once in a system will never leave.... I can personally attest that in my own tanks I have pretty much disproven all of these even though I see them 10x a day at least on boards.....

SOOOO, I would start with some nice WCs using RO water, start taking out the plates and while you are doing so vacuum out all the detritus and nasty buildup that is most likely sitting stagnant under that plate causing nutrient issues.
Even if you only want to take out one plate at a time and wait a week or so that would be fine. I can't imagine that you with 100#+ of live rock in there that if you do a WC and remove a plate that you would have a nutrient explosion, if anything I can imagine seeing a nutrient decrease.

Speaking of maintance how often do you do water changes?
What type of water do you use? Salt?

 

Again I appreciate the advise. These are all things I have considered. I have even considered removing the substrate almost completely. ( I am only worried about what the effects may be on the equilibrium) Really my main reason for not wanting to remove the plates is that I will have to remove all of my rock in order to do so. Is there any reason I would not want these in there if I remove the majority of my substrate?

Also over the weekend I did some thinking and came up with another possible solution for the fuge. I was hoping to obtain a tank that is somewhere between 30 x 8.5 x 14 and 36 x 10.5 x 20 (any suggestions?) that could house my current sump. This would allow my filtration to occur in the sump and over flow into the fuge tank. This would leave around a 10" cube for macro-aglae.

I have also considered simply building a long tank into a sump/fuge that would make the existing sump unncessary. Any opinions on either of these ideas?

 

like it was mentioned before, I would do away with the under gravel, and I'm almost certain that is the culprit of you phosphate problems