I just finished putting the last two baffles in the refugium; it should be good to go in a few days. It's just going to be tumbled chaeto when the baffles are ready; I'm probably going to add a mangrove propagule section to it if I collect some while in Florida.
Need Some Ideas: Focusing on Eels
- Thread starter Wiggles92
- Start date
I ended up putting in a deep sand bed, a tiny bit of live rock, a few hermits, two non-photosynthetic clams, and five mangrove propagules in addition to the chaeto in the middle section. I upgraded the lighting on it to a 23 watt compact fluorescent bulb (not sure on the K rating), so the chaeto and mangroves should grow better now. The last thing that I need to do is get it connected to the main 55 gallon aquarium; I've just been circulating the water with a small canister filter thus far.
Any suggestions for the refugium and/or the main aquarium?
I tested the water today as well as two days ago when I made my most recent update on the refugium and here's what I came up with:
12/9/11-- pH: 8.3; nitrate: 10 ppm; phosphate: ~7 ppm
12/11/11-- pH: 8.3; nitrate: 5 ppm; phosphate: 5 ppm
Based on these results, I'd say that the chaeto in the refugium is doing a decent job with keeping all the levels in check, and maybe the DSB and mangroves are helping, too. I've been adding bits of food for the crabs twice daily, so I doubt that nitrate and phosphate will ever actually hit zero. I've also noticed an increasingly large number of plankton and other miniscule critters in there, so that's a good sign, too.
I figure that I'll hook the refugium up to the main aquarium after the holidays; I want to be sure that I have it pretty well stabilized before making any major changes.
I tested the water again today, and the nitrate and phosphate levels are down a little bit more (nitrate: ~3ppm, phosphate: ~3ppm).
Might I be able to add a another species of eel to the mix as originally planned after removing the undulate trigger and the damsels if this refugium does do its job and alleviates my algae problems?
The overflow and pump should be here in under a week, so I'll have the refugium all hooked up by next year.
Well, I got the overflow and pump, but I have to make some changes to the refugium because the pump is blowing the DSB all over; the pump is at the level I need it to be at for the refugium to function properly, so I'm going to have to remove the DSB and mangroves in order to avoid tearing up the pump's propeller.
I finally got around to hooking everything up, and I now have to go back to the drawing board (sort of)... 
It turns out that the sump can't accommodate all of the extra water in the case of a power outage, so it looks like a trip to PetCo is in order to acquire either a 20 gallon high or a 29 gallon (at $1/gallon now luckily); that should give me enough extra space to account for the extra water. Luckily, everything else is working just fine, so I don't have to do much beyond switching sumps.
It turns out that the sump can't accommodate all of the extra water in the case of a power outage, so it looks like a trip to PetCo is in order to acquire either a 20 gallon high or a 29 gallon (at $1/gallon now luckily); that should give me enough extra space to account for the extra water. Luckily, everything else is working just fine, so I don't have to do much beyond switching sumps.
If you are having pump problems baffle the area with the DSB off. Just take 2 pieces off glass put one before the refugium area and one after. That will maintain flow and stop the sand from getting into your impeller.
