Mangroves

[enwelz]

Ok, pretty soon ill be getting sketches of my plan for my 100gallon w/ 50gal sump to go along with all my questions!

This question is about the plants for the refugium, I have heard that mangrove plants are great for filtration but a b*@#$ to prune and keep under control, are macroalgeas as efficient? Any tips on what to consider?

 

[nonstophoops]

Ok, pretty soon ill be getting sketches of my plan for my 100gallon w/ 50gal sump to go along with all my questions!

This question is about the plants for the refugium, I have heard that mangrove plants are great for filtration but a b*@#$ to prune and keep under control, are macroalgeas as efficient? Any tips on what to consider?

If you are displaying the refugium I would definitely consider mangroves. They are pretty cool looking in a tank. They are actually pretty easy to care for once you get them established and rooting. Just make sure you pick up all leaves that fall off before they rot and release pollutants back into the water.

Other than have a display refuge, I would skip them. They are not actually good for filtration(unless you have space for a ton of them) because they are slow growing.

Using a macro-algae is a much better way to remove organics. You can then harvest the algae as it grows and throw it out. Chaetomorpha is the easiest to keep and doesn't release a lot of toxins that can turn the water yellowish and limit coral growth. There are many other macros that you could try depending on the look you want. Some could even be used as food depending on the fish you have/get.

 

[SimonL]

I second that...mangroves are a tree remember, they grow slowly and because of this don't use up the nutrients like a speedy growing macro algae does.

 

[enwelz]

Ok that makes sense, The sump will be behind the tank so i'll go with the macroalgea since it doesn't need to be pretty. Should I go with a deep sand bed? I have also head about "Kits" of different critters to inhabit the dsb, is it worth the cost? the refugium will be a bout 20-30gal of the sump, with MA, Live rock, anything else?

 

[nonstophoops]

Ok that makes sense, The sump will be behind the tank so i'll go with the macroalgea since it doesn't need to be pretty. Should I go with a deep sand bed? I have also head about "Kits" of different critters to inhabit the dsb, is it worth the cost? the refugium will be a bout 20-30gal of the sump, with MA, Live rock, anything else?

I would go with a DSB. They will help in controlling nitrates along with the macroalgae. As long as you don't let you tank nitrates get too high or feed directly in the refugium(which you shouldn't do) the DSB should be nothing but positive.

If you are putting good live rock into the refugium, then there is no need to get a critter pack or anything like that. I don't think it would be worth the cost. The rock should seed the sand introducing copepods, amphipods, and maybe worms and seastars.

Other than that you should be good to go.

 

[enwelz]

I would go with a DSB. They will help in controlling nitrates along with the macroalgae. As long as you don't let you tank nitrates get too high or feed directly in the refugium(which you shouldn't do) the DSB should be nothing but positive.

If you are putting good live rock into the refugium, then there is no need to get a critter pack or anything like that. I don't think it would be worth the cost. The rock should seed the sand introducing copepods, amphipods, and maybe worms and seastars.

Other than that you should be good to go.

Sweet! I work at target so I think I am going to try a bunch of these pink and purple (not psyched about the color) body scrubber plastic sponge things, they are 50cents a peice but pretty big, as my biomedia\pre refugium mechanical filtration.

Should I have carbon filtration at some point? And how is the best way to integrate this into a sump. I am assuming after the refugium if using it at all so it dosen't affect nutrients downstream? Should I hook up my magnum 350 canister and attach it to the sump? I have plenty of room for it if it is a good idea? Im new to the sump idea if you can't tell

 

[enwelz]

Here is my first cheesy paint sketch of what i have going on in my mind!

http://www.imagebam.com/image/0acc29115026720

 

[nonstophoops]

Sweet! I work at target so I think I am going to try a bunch of these pink and purple (not psyched about the color) body scrubber plastic sponge things, they are 50cents a peice but pretty big, as my biomedia\pre refugium mechanical filtration.

Should I have carbon filtration at some point? And how is the best way to integrate this into a sump. I am assuming after the refugium if using it at all so it dosen't affect nutrients downstream? Should I hook up my magnum 350 canister and attach it to the sump? I have plenty of room for it if it is a good idea? Im new to the sump idea if you can't tell

Depending on how much live rock you will have in your main tank and in the refugium, I think you would be better off skipping the bio-scrubbers. They will produce nitrates just like bioballs, which is precisely what you are trying to keep down with the refugium. A bigger refuge with a bigger DSB footprint and some more live rock would be way way better than the biomedia.

That drawing is actually pretty solid. I think that the setup you have in the drawing would work, but I feel it would work even better with a layout change.

If there is indeed 3 overflow hoses coming into the sump I would change your plan around a bit. The reason being that you want to have raw water from the tank flowing to your skimmer and possibly refugium. Your skimmer will work best with unfiltered water.

I would have 1 overflow tube run to the skimmer end of the sump. Then baffle at a height just below the skimmer outtake. Have the other two tubes flowing into the refugium on the opposite end as the skimmer. A baffle at a pretty high height for the refugium. The return pump would be in the middle of the sump then with water flowing from either side where the skimmer and refugium are.

In between the baffles I put sponge filter and this is also where I put my carbon(when I use it). I used it on and off, but now I am running an ozonizer I am not messing with it. I like my water parameters and clarity just fine.

That description may sound confusing, but I will post a couple pics of what I am talking about tomorrow. My sump is setup that way and I think it works much better than running everything in one direction. I have done a sump before from one end to the other and did not like it nearly as much as my current setup. Granted my sump is a 125 gallon off of a 210 gallon display, so I have a little more space to work with.

 

[nonstophoops]

I am going to just make a thread showing my setup which will show my filtration in it as well. In there you will be able to see what I meant for the sump.

 

[Heathd]

While its best to feed a fuge nutrient rich water, its best to have a skimmer before the fuge, that way all your little copepods and amphipods that bread in your fuge dont get sucked up by the skimmer, on their way to the tank.

Thats my two cents.