Building a refugium

Laura and Jim will be hosting the May meeting this Saturday the 12th and it will be the usual of food, drinks, raffle and fun.
 
Doors will be open at 6:00 pm for social talk and the meeting will start at 7:00.  Parking gets a little tight and the city says you can't park on 4th but there is a parking lot a block away.   Meeting is usually held in the backyard so feel free to bring your favorite lawn chair, weather permitting of course.

If you need address/directions, contact a club member.

Best if you park at Mini Mall (where the spaghetti establishment use to be)
 
You will get to see his new frag tank set up in the making.
 
Hope to see you there!

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[leigekiller]

ok, Nitrates just plain suck.. so.. I have a nice lil 20 gallon long and a place to put it to set up a refugium, anyone have any thoughts on what I should fill it with and the best way to plumb it? I was thinking it might make a good topic/case study for next months meeting.

Daniel

[Ed]

Dan,
   Refugeums are a  way to remove phosphates.   I would use a power head or baster to blow off rock and then do water changes.   I would check for waste in places in your overflows, corners of tank, behind rocks, etc.   I would check to see if your skimmer is working properly/another source would be using the best Carbon available.  One pound Carbon for every 50 gallons monthly. 

People often do water changes with un filtered water usually are adding more nitrates.  A good RO/DI filter system or a additional cannister to your existing RO/DI can do wonders.

[leigekiller]

In general yes, but there are some plants and I may put a couple clams in it to help thus making it helpful with both feeding and chemical reduction.

Make sense.

[Ed]

Dan,
    If your nitrates are high, I am concerned you are going to lose clams.   I do not want you to lose any animals my friend.

[leigekiller]

already losiong animals to high nitrate thus the seriouis efforts to try and get them down, already treated chemically, looked for decaying matter, waterchanges and so on...

[Ed]

Dan,
     I want to convince you to stop using any additives at this time.  That could be the source of your nitrates.  I have water that is filtered if you need.  Give me a call.    I will do what I can to get you on the right track.

Ed

[leigekiller]

Hey Ed, the only addative I am using is a specific notrate reducer, we tested teh water we are using for it and its nitrate zero so we are good there.

Daniel

[BeauC]

My unexpert opinion if you don't mind,  little larger water change than usual, wash out all filter pads or socks, macro algae in sump and check levels again. OOOOORRRRR  depending on substrate,  i know i had a problem with finer crushed coral holding a lot of "muck".  When this muck is disturbed or not siphoned I had higher tested nitrate levels also.  I'm an unexpert and consider myself a beginner but every lil bit helps 

[leigekiller]

*nods* this is what I have done so far, changed the media in the sump filters, 2 50% water changes seperated by 2 days, the nitrate reducer into the water, cleaned and made sure that the skimmer is doing its thing happily, and left the substrate alone after the first time I cleaned the base, realising I released a ton of bad stuff when I stirred it all up .  I am going to do another water change tomorrow , probably another 50%.

Ed I was looking into getting a Ro/di unit but the deal I had on the reef formum fell through though the guy not responding after agreeing.
I do plan on setting on up in the garage for filtering my base water.

[Ed]

Daniel,
     I have a RO.   Please come by and get some water from me.   It would make me feel good if you did.  I also have a RO/DI unit sitting around if you want to buy a few fittings you can borrow it for a while.    Sharing is what makes this place fun!!

[MrsBode]

If you're looking for some macroalgae, I have some green caulerpa that's going crazy in my tank...

[Andrew]

I am looking for a good hardy type of macro algae to put into my refugium, does anyone have a suggestion. I have twenty pounds of miracle mud in the bottom. My nitrates are good ,just looking for a place to grow copes etc.

[btrue]

hi,
We have a large refugium for our tank, not much macro algae right now, but we will give you advice, if you want to see our tank, PM me for phone #, we live in Kennewick and would be happy to meet you any evening.
Also, we are setting up a place, in our basement, this winter to raise some rotifers again!   NO, I won't let Greg put them in the living room, ha!!
-Sandi

[MrsBode]

I'm cutting back my macroalgae in about 15 minutes.  If anybody would like some, feel free to call me. (360)927-5275.

[leigekiller]

ok the refugeium is finally set up and running as part of the main system yaya !!!!

now I need to get things to put in it
If anyone has macroalgies they would like to part with a clump or two of, or liverock that is infested with some nice like critters please let me know
 I will be at the club meeting on friday and that might be a nice place to meet up,  Don't have anything to trade so anything would have to be a Buy exchange.

Thanks
Daniel