Refugium Connection to existing system

Awesome, thanks for sharing your valid perspective!!!

I totally agree that if there is no major initial source of nutes (dieoff) then a major cycle will not be experienced.

I do see a little cyano in the fuge now, but that's a sign of it establishing so I am not worried.

 

He does have a point. But I do believe you would get some diatomes from the new sand. I bet the bacteria would colonise in the DSB at the same rate immediately plumbed as it would if cycled alone. If you want to immediately plumb it up I would put enough DT sand to form the top 1 inch of the DSB for added speed of colonisation. Hmmm this is a tricky one. I bet you will be ok either way though. If you cycle it alone you definately wont get any algea blooms though.

 

I added an 8.25 gallon fuge with a 5.5" dsb too a 15 gallon tank right after filling it with 3 day old new salt water and had no problems, it was just like doing a large water change. I put live sand and live rock and some chaeto in the fuge, 3 weeks later no crash or problems at all, the sandbed will just take some time too mature. The amount of new water and sand you added would make no difference at all.

 

You are not going to have a cycle. There is no need to cycle a fuge. Tie it in and let it run.

 

Thanks Powerman - that's exaclty what I did!!!

The fuge' has been tied in for a week now and so far so good - the chaeto has colored-up a bit from when it was in a "no-nutrient" water situation.

NO major blooms from the new sand to report!!! Getting pods in tomorrow!

 

Ya mine was pretty boring for a while. Saw pods right away... but that was about it. Slowly a worm or two showed up and things settled in. Got some cyano here and there. That is/is not bad depending on who you talk to. Picked up the flow just a bit. Anyway.... took a good 6 months before the sand beds showed some life and was populated with worms. Course at a year it was even better.

 

This refugium has been tied in for about 7 weeks now and has shown great progress. We seeded with a few bottles of pods a week ago and are really seeing things take off. There are many amphipods visible scuttling around on the sandbed in the fuge and we see molts all the time in the DT now blowing around.