lletellier July 9, 2007 July 9, 2007 I have a biowheel with two compartments and I am wondering if there would be any way to modify it and turn it into a refugium for my 46 gal. any thoughts??
Sugar Magnolia July 9, 2007 July 9, 2007 I'm sure you could modify it, it'll certainly need some sort of light over it or one of those desk lamps aiming into it for the macro. I've modified AC 70's into refugiums and use a 13W Jali light over it for growth. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...t=how+to+DIY+an
lletellier July 10, 2007 Author July 10, 2007 very nice work i'm gonna try something like that. thanks
bigJPDC July 10, 2007 July 10, 2007 The AC70 with chaeto and a clamp on HD light is all I have for filtration and flow in my 10g, and it's been great so far. Nitrates went from 30 to 0 in three weeks. One thing I noticed over the weekend is that when I pruned the chaeto and cranked the AC70 back on, I got a snowglobe of organics in the tank. It makes sense since the chaeto is acting like filter floss, trapping the organics which is then used as food in the fuge. I don't know how I would remedy that situation becuase if I changed the water out I think I would be dumping pods. SugarMag - do you see the same thing? jp
Sugar Magnolia July 10, 2007 July 10, 2007 When I was running mine, I had a small poly/carbon pad in place between where the water comes into the AC70 and where I kept the chaeto. It really helped to trap alot of gunk before it hit the chaeto chamber. Also, I would periodically empty the entire filter and give the impeller area a scrub with a toothbrush and flush out the entire filter with hot water to clean out any trapped detritus. It seemed to help keep it running longer. The first one I put together a few years ago went ka-put pretty quickly because I used some sand and rubble under the chaeto and didn't have a acrylic baffle between the chaeto area and the impeller housing area. Sand and impellers don't go too well together. Impeller got stuck and burned out the motor. Right now I'm just running a cheapo HOB on my 2.5 gallon and plan to put together another AC70 fuge for it. The tank seemed to do much better with the fuge on it. I'm having some cyano issues now that I never had before while running the AC70. One thing I have heard that you can do rather than swapping out the impeller is to trim the impeller to reduce the flow. I may try that.
bigJPDC July 10, 2007 July 10, 2007 Sounds like the way to go is to monthly prune the macro and dump the water, rinsing with RO. I would think that plenty of pods would be trapped in the chaeto, so it's not like I'd be erasing the population. A pad would just become a nitrate sink, so that option is out. Excellent advice - thank you! jp
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