Converting part of sump to refugium

[Folta]

Good rainy monday morning to everyone! I hear this rain won't last long, and the rest of the week is going to be quite nice.

 

Anyway, I was thinking about the way my tank is setup. The sump I have is one of those premade sumps - the one where the water comes down on the right side, to a square piece of blue filter padding, then to a plate that has a bunch of holes, with a chamber of bio balls in it. The water trickles over the balls, then when it gets to the bottom, it goes through a big sponge, a pack of biochem zorb that I stuck in the sump, then is pumped back out.

 

I know that bioballs in a reef aquarium tend to be a nitrate factory. So I was considering taking them out and converting a part of the sump to a refugium. I assume that macro algae would need to stay submerged, so it wouldn't work to just replace the bioballs with macro? Or is there a type that would be fine with that? I originally left the bio balls in there when I moved the tank to try and retain as much of the bacteria as possible. Now that its been set up over a month, I think it is time to get them out and put something in that will help reduce nitrates. I don't know if I will be able to convert part of the sump to do this, so if not my backup plan is to possibly get an HOB refugium. Does anyone here use one of those? Are they alot of help?

 

Tonight I'll take some pics of the sump so you can see what I'm working with.

[scott711]

I had a similar set up as you do. I converted my sump into a refugium. I took all the bioballs out and put macro in. I put a couple of lights on top of it and the macro grows fine. All I have in there is macro, my return pump and my protein skimmer.

Good rainy monday morning to everyone!  I hear this rain won't last long, and the rest of the week is going to be quite nice.

 

Anyway, I was thinking about the way my tank is setup.  The sump I have is one of those premade sumps - the one where the water comes down on the right side, to a square piece of blue filter padding, then to a plate that has a bunch of holes, with a chamber of bio balls in it.  The water trickles over the balls, then when it gets to the bottom, it goes through a big sponge, a pack of biochem zorb that I stuck in the sump, then is pumped back out. 

 

I know that bioballs in a reef aquarium tend to be a nitrate factory.  So I was considering taking them out and converting a part of the sump to a refugium.  I assume that macro algae would need to stay submerged, so it wouldn't work to just replace the bioballs with macro?  Or is there a type that would be fine with that?  I originally left the bio balls in there when I moved the tank to try and retain as much of the bacteria as possible.  Now that its been set up over a month, I think it is time to get them out and put something in that will help reduce nitrates.  I don't know if I will be able to convert part of the sump to do this, so if not my backup plan is to possibly get an HOB refugium.  Does anyone here use one of those?  Are they alot of help?

 

Tonight I'll take some pics of the sump so you can see what I'm working with.

28394[/snapback]

[Guest D33rex]

i know people who have HOBs and say they are fine. Depending on how much room you have under the tank and how big you want the refuge to be, there are endless options. You can pump water from the sump to a 3 dollar bucket with a light on it if you have the room. Installing the macro in place of the bioballs would be fine also.

[Grav]

I set up a 5 gal bucket for a fuge with a spare 10k 65w pc bulb to light it after getting my cheato at the last meeting. Took 15 min. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the bucket, installed a bulkhead (only part that had a cost) and 3/4 inch PVC pipe with a strainer on top for a stand pipe. Gravity fed from tank and drain into sump. Reflector is tin foil. Of course I'm lucky nuff to have a back room and all the space I needed.

 

Loads of pods, small snails, brittle stars and all kinds of funky critters in there.

 

If this isn't clear let me know, makes perfect sence in my head.

 

Going to a 24g tub soon, which remindes me, I have flow questions... like how to figure how much... gotta start another thread.

[Folta]

Thanks for the advice.

 

I'm getting some cheato from a guy on reefcentral, and tomorrow am going to pick up a lamp to put in the stand to point at the section of the sump that I'll be putting it in. I'm going to take out 1/2 the bioballs for now, until I decide whether or not to keep them in in some fashion. I considered putting some in my skimmer to help reduce the bubbles that are getting back into the main tank.

[steveoutlaw]

In all the reading I've done about refugiums, the most popular opinion is to have 7-10% of your flow going through the fuge. This gives the fuge enough time to take all the bad "stuff" out of the water and put all the good "stuff" into the water to go back to the tank. General consensus is also to have "raw" tank water going to the fuge rather than skimmed water because your fuge inhabitants thrive on the bad stuff in the water.

 

Please let me know if there is a better way because I'm about to convert my 30g tank into a sump/fuge and want to make sure I do it right.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[craby]

What I would do in your case is to add some baffles just outside of the section of the sump that now holds the bioballs. This will raise the water level in this section to the top of the highest baffle, which needs to be the baffle closest to this section. Also, you should take out the bioballs gradually so that you don't shock the biological system.

[Guest condiman]

Here is what I did with my sump http://coralforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=45043#45043