more cheato or more rocks in sump?

[bues0022]

I've got a new fuge light on its way - but I've now started thinking about my potential upcoming problem: what's better in the sump, more cheato or more rocks? I have a small sump (10 gallon tank, roughly 2/3 full of water) on a 30 gallon tank. I have it mostly packed with a lot of live rock, and a small chunk of cheato. I trim it often because it will grow down into the rocks and just get unmanageable. My new light should grow the cheato even faster, but do I trim more or remove some rock?

 

I have had a bit of cyano I've been battling lately, so I've been thinking about the other thread talking about the Redfield ratio (http://wamas.org/forums/topic/87363-tank-failing-need-help/). Would removing some rock and growing more cheato alter my N:P ratio thereby eliminating my cyano? 

[YHSublime]

It depends on if there is enough rock in your display to support your current bioload.  

 

Alternatively, couldn't you move the rock to one side, and just make an egg crate divider for the cheato? That way you can do both! 

[bues0022]

I'm not minimalist in the display, but not packed full either. My sump is packed for room - no way to do an eggcrate divider. Right now rock is on the bottom and cheato on top. I'm considering removing a couple softball sized rocks and using that room to grow cheato instead.

[YHSublime]

You'll probably be fine with that idea. I recently pulled most of the rock out of my sump, you can see my build from the link in the signature. I wasn't sure if there was going to be enough in the display, but I did it over the course of a month. I also have a light bioload, 2 clowns in about 35-40 gallons of water. 

[madweazl]

Unless there is a truly minimalist amount of rock in the display, there is likely enough. I'm not a fan of compromising "areas" of the setup; if your plan is to have a macro-algae refugium, it should be that an only that. Do you have 20-30lbs of rock in the display? If so, that is more than enough. With that said, a 33% (by volume) refugium is quite large as well so there is room for flexibility. What else is in the sump/refugium (e.g. heaters, skimmer, etc.)? 

[bues0022]

In the display I probably have between 20-30 pounds of LR. I started with all dry, and I kept mixing/matching pieces to get it to look like how I wanted, so I didn't pay attention to how much weight actually ended up in the tank.

 

My new light came - yowzers holy bright! I picked up a 300W UFO LED grow light from ebay for $29! Same one that sells for double that on amazon. Hope the algae likes it, I almost need sunglasses to even look in the sump now.

 

In the sump I have a skimmer, heater, ATO float, return pump, and a bubble tower (basically just a vertical tube with holes in the bottom where my return dumps into - helps reduce bubbles in the display a little).