Kogo's fresh water refugium project
- Thread starter Kogo
- Start date
I recently completed the first (overdue) plant trimming. I just pulled all plants out into a bin of old tank water, shook of any detritus, removed old or "dirty" growth, and put the fresh new growth back in the filter.
all nitrogen sources still at 0
plant list now only includes free floating hornwart, parrot's feather, and some duckweed added unintentionally
the only shortcoming is that the mechanical filter seems too small (narrow) and I have to clean it every two to three days. I think i just need to add a filter sock as was suggested before.
all nitrogen sources still at 0
plant list now only includes free floating hornwart, parrot's feather, and some duckweed added unintentionally
the only shortcoming is that the mechanical filter seems too small (narrow) and I have to clean it every two to three days. I think i just need to add a filter sock as was suggested before.
Are you going to add any ghost shrimp, daphnia, or other freshwater plankton cultures? That would truly make it a freshwater refugium... even blackworms!
Looks good - I'd add a lot more free floating stemmed plants if possible as well as some cherry shrimp/red crystal shrimp.
The current plant load has been sufficient for the overstocked conditions I have been keeping.
I would like to add some smaller creatures to the sump, but I am currently growing some fish out in the there that would eat any shrimp etc..
This weekend, I plan to cull the stock down (now that I know the filter can handle massive bioload). Once that is done I may move the growouts to the main tank... then I can add some shrimp.
stay tuned!
I would like to add some smaller creatures to the sump, but I am currently growing some fish out in the there that would eat any shrimp etc..
This weekend, I plan to cull the stock down (now that I know the filter can handle massive bioload). Once that is done I may move the growouts to the main tank... then I can add some shrimp.
stay tuned!
Any updates? On terds recommendation I added a small ghetto refugim to my tank with mangroves. I'm interested in trying a complete plant setup like this.
update: (as requested)
after the agravation of constantly changing the filter pads, I took the filter down long enough to redo the baffles. I almost trippled the filter pad section, and removed the small fish I was growing out in the sump.
as a result more sediment was trapped without clogging the filter pads and any particulates that pased through the pad settled on the bottom of the planted section. A small carpet of bright green algea started to cover the pad and some of the bottom of the planted section (no algea formed in the display). after over a week I'm still using the same pad and the algea is begining to disapear. the water is currently crystal clear and continues to read zero nitrates. The duckweed that entered the system on another plant and has, of course, thrived. I was woried that it would clog the pumps, but so far is not a problem. It does, however, do an excellent job cleaning the water.
pics to follow!
after the agravation of constantly changing the filter pads, I took the filter down long enough to redo the baffles. I almost trippled the filter pad section, and removed the small fish I was growing out in the sump.
as a result more sediment was trapped without clogging the filter pads and any particulates that pased through the pad settled on the bottom of the planted section. A small carpet of bright green algea started to cover the pad and some of the bottom of the planted section (no algea formed in the display). after over a week I'm still using the same pad and the algea is begining to disapear. the water is currently crystal clear and continues to read zero nitrates. The duckweed that entered the system on another plant and has, of course, thrived. I was woried that it would clog the pumps, but so far is not a problem. It does, however, do an excellent job cleaning the water.
pics to follow!
